World champion John Higgins impressed as he became the first player through to the quarter-finals at this week's Honghe Industrial China Open.

The Scottish cueman was joined in the last eight by two-time world champion Mark Williams, Englishman Nigel Bond and compatriot Stephen Maguire.

All four players progressed to the business end of this season's £250,000 week-long tournament at the Beijing Sports Gymnasium,

Having been taken the distance by Belfast professional Joe Swail in his first-round match earlier in the week, Higgins was doubly happy with his emphatic 5-1 demolition of Romford's Mark King.

"I finished the match well," reflected the world number one. "I gave Mark a lot of chances early on so I'm pleased to win.

"My match with Joe [Swail] was bad, but I got some confidence from making a good break in the last frame.

"I gave Mark some chances and he didn't take them. My next opponent is sure to take them so I will have to play better."

Higgins started with an impressive 88 break before King levelled proceedings with a fine 62 run.

But from there it was one-way traffic as Wishaw-based cueman Higgins ran away with the match.

The Scot added further breaks of 50, 71, 62, 39 and a cool 116 in the final frame to complete a comfortable victory in just one hour and 20 minutes.

Sporting Life / Eurosport