"Rocket" Ronnie O'Sullivan eased into the World Snooker China Open quarter-finals after beating Ali Carter 5-4 in Beijing on Thursday. The next man to try and halt O'Sullivan's march to the title will be Marco Fu from Hong Kong.

O'Sullivan handily beat his practice partner by taking the last three frames to set up a quarter-final face-off with Hong Kong's Marco Fu.

Carter seemed disappointed but only had himself to blame after failing to capitalize on several opportunities to win the game.

"I was lucky, I expected Ali to win with the chances he had. He should have put me away," admitted O'Sullivan, who is still suffering from jet-lag.

Fu himself rallied from 2-0 down to oust Welshman Matthew Stevens 5-3, thanks to breaks 62, 57 and 63.

Jimmy White had enjoyed a nice run into the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time in 18 months but his luck ran out as he crashed to a 5-1 defeat at the hands of John Higgins. The Scot , finding his form again at last, knocked in breaks of? 76, 81, 52 and 43.

John Higgins now faces his countryman Graeme Dott who beat Neil Robertson 5-1.

(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2007)