Brecel and home hope Dale reach Welsh Open quarters

World champion Luca Brecel and Wales' Dominic Dale raced through to the last eight of the Welsh Open.

Belgian Brecel impressed as he beat England's Tom Ford 4-1 in Llandudno on Thursday evening.

Dale, 52, is the last home player still in the tournament after he beat countryman Jak Jones 4-0.

Northern Irishman Mark Allen is also through to Friday's quarter-finals, where he will meet Scotland's John Higgins.

Allen, the world number three, eased to a 4-0 round-four win over Robbie Williams, while five-time Welsh Open winner Higgins came through a tense final-frame decider against Matthew Selt.

Gary Wilson, who beat defending champion Robert Milkins 4-0, will face Anthony McGill for a semi-final place after the Scot overcame England's Ricky Walden 4-3.

Brecel will take on either Marco Fu or Martin O'Donnell, who met in one of Thursday night's late matches.

The other late game was between Elliot Slesser and Fan Zhengyi, with the winner meeting Dale on Friday.

World number 49 Dale's comprehensive win over Jones continued his impressive run at the tournament.

Dale said he "felt like a snooker player again" after he beat 17-year-old Stan Moody earlier on Thursday, and he followed that up admirably in the evening session.

Cwmbran's Jones beat Hossein Vafaei 4-2 to set up the meeting with Dale, but another Welshman, Daniel Wells, was beaten to a place in the last 16 by Fu.

Brecel had reached the last 16 with a 4-1 win over Graeme Dott, another man who knows how it feels to spend a year as world champion.

Following a recent sticky run of results for Brecel, last year's surprise champion in Sheffield looks to have found some form with two months to go before he embarks on his title defence at the Crucible.