Jack Lisowski overcame Mark Allen 5-4 to reach the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters.
The world number 44 could be on course for his best-ever season and impressed with a victory in the deciding frame over Allen.
Allen, the world number six, had already lost twice to Lisowski in 2017 in Gibraltar and Riga but would have been confident of taking his revenge after reaching the final of the International Championship prior to the Shanghai Masters.
However, Lisowski managed to edge him out yet again in a nine-frame thriller and will now come up against Norway’s Kurt Maflin in the last eight.
Maflin is ranked as the world number 55 and Lisowski is the 1.53 favourite to claim the win but he has never managed to beat the Norwegian in three previous attempts.
Their last meeting did come over five years ago, though, when Lisowski was a relative novice on the professional scene and, after strong showings at the English Open and International Championship recently, he will be looking to make a statement in Shanghai by reaching a first-ever semi-final at a ranking event.
Maflin, who is 2.50 to come out on top, fell at the first round in his last two tournaments and hadn’t been beyond the second round in any ranking event this season prior to the Shanghai Masters.
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