Neil Robertson kept his hopes of winning the China Open for a second time alive after making a superb comeback.

Neil Robertson. Picture courtesy of Monique Limbos

The Australian was forced to dig deep from 4-1 behind before winning a thrilling match down to the wire against new snooker professional Sam Craigie.

Craigie, who earlier this season beat Kyren Wilson in one of his best career wins yet, cruised into a commanding three-frame lead midway through the second round encounter.

But the 2010 world champion and this season’s Scottish Open winner pegged Craigie back with breaks of 103, 54 and 93 to level the contest at 4-4.

Craigie then produced a wonderful response with a well taken break of 93 to put him on the verge of victory but it was to be Robertson’s day after dominating the crucial last two frames.

Robertson, who won the China Open five years ago in 2013, will next face China’s Zhou Yueong for a place in the quarter-finals of the £225,000 top prize tournament.

Meanwhile, Jack Lisowski continued arguably his best season yet as a professional after he beat four-times world champion John Higgins 6-2.

Stuart Bingham came through a final frame decider to beat Ricky Walden in a match which will be remembered for the 2015 world champion’s 147 maximum as reported earlier today.

Masters champion Mark Allen also cemented his Crucible hopes by beating talented teenager Yan Bingtao 6-4 and there was another impressive win for Mark Williams in his bid to win his third major ranking event of the season.

However there was disappointment for Tuesday’s headline player Elliot Slessor who failed to build on his sensation 6-2 win over Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Slessor suffered a 6-4 defeat to Tom Ford despite enjoying a 2-0 lead at one stage.