Robertson gets Carter

Neil Robertson demolished Ali Carter's bid for world title glory by knocking out last year's beaten finalist at the Crucible.

Australian Robertson surged into the quarter-finals of the Betfred.com World Championship with a 13-8 victory over the Essex cueman and will face Stephen Maguire next.

Left-hander Robertson, from Melbourne, developed a 9-7 lead after pinching four of Sunday's final five frames on the black, and the 27-year-old was in no mood to permit a Carter comeback.

Breaks of 89 and 59, the latter a run which featured an outrageous fluked red, gave Robertson the opening two frames of the afternoon.

Victory was assured when Robertson comfortably won the 21st frame, with Carter coming forward to shake hands rather than scrap for the snookers he required.

John Higgins was in desperate trouble against Jamie Cope, before pulling out a dramatic win. Cope won three of the first four frames of the evening to turn 8-8 into an 11-9 lead, and he needed just two more to set up a quarter-final against Mark Selby - conquerer of 2006 champion Graeme Dott.

Cope put himself one frame from victory at 12-10, however Higgins produced a stunning fightback and won three in a row to secure his place in the last eight.

The final frame was made more dramatic than could have been anticipated after the players had to stop when an audience member was taken ill.

Maguire set up a clash with Robertson by beating Mark King 13-6. The pair had been tied at 5-5 earlier in the day but Maguire, who had been struggling at that point, produced some stunning snooker in the remainder of the match, including a break of 133 in frame 14. He finished with a break of 51.

Also on Monday, Selby ousted Dott by a 13-10 margin.