Defending World Champion John Higgins was dumped out of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix by Hong Kong’s Marco Fu.

Higgins launched a comeback from being 4-2 down to level the match only to lose the deciding frame to go down 5-4.

John Higgins blamed the table for playing a part in his defeat.

Speaking after the match he said, “I’ve played every match on that table and I got accustomed to the kicks, but I got two monstrous kicks in the last frame.”

“You know it’s coming but it’s still not easy to take.”

“It was a good match but I missed a few easy shots.  I was in control of the match at 1-0, but at 50 ahead I missed an easy red in the middle.”

Marco Fu’s win puts him in the quarter-finals where he will meet fellow oriental Liu Song of China who defeated another Scot, Stephen Maguire 5-3.  Fu is now best priced at 15/2* with Bluesquare to win the tournament whereas Song is an outside bet at 22/1* with Sportingbet.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is now the tournament favourite at 5/4* with William Hill.  He recorded breaks of 56, 61, 49, 78, 69 and 68 to beat Michael Judge 5-2* in his last 16 match.

Ronnie hasn’t won a ranking event for 2 and a half years and he didn’t seem too confident speaking after the match.  He said, “I played alright, but I think the less I say the better sometimes.  I get myself in trouble otherwise.”  Despite this, the bookies still have him as favourite.

O’Sullivan goes through to face Joe Swail in the quarter-final.  Joe is the least fancied of the quarter-finals as an outside bet of 25/1* with bet365.

Second favourite to take the Grand Prix is Shaun Murphy who is 6/1* with bet365.  He made his way to the quarter-finals with a 5-3 win over Welshman Ryan Day and earns himself a tie against Peter Ebdon.

The 2002 World Champion Ebdon beat Barry Hawkins 5-2*.  The bookies have Ebdon as third favourite at 7/1* with Betfred.

The most convincing win of the last 16 came from Gerard Greene who whitewashed Ricky Walden 5-0 with breaks of 101 and 91.  Gerard looks like a good outside bet at 16/1* to win the title with bet365.

If Greene is to upset the odds he must first of all get the past the challenge of Joe Perry.  Perry beat Ali Carter 5-3 in the last 16 and is now 10/1* with Paddy Power to come home with the Grand Prix crown.

*Odds are correct as of time of writing and are subject to change.