Snooker's world No. 14 Marco Fu of Hong Kong China became the first man to advance to the quarterfinal round of the ongoing 2016 Betfred World Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on Friday evening.

Fu, a two-time ranking event winner, defeated Anthony McGill of Scotland with a 13-9 victory in their best-of-25 showdown to reach the last eight for the third time in his career and for the first time since 2006.

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The 25-year-old Scottish cueman trailed 9-7 going into the evening session and claimed the first frame tonight with a break of 97 to cut the deficit within a frame.

However, the 38-year-old Hong Kong ace managed to dominate the next three frames with top runs of 56 and 100 to extend his lead to 12-8 and move one frame away from sealing the victory. Fu could have closed out the match in the 21^st farme but missed the last red on 55 where McGill took advantage of that to keep the match alive.

But a long red from Fu early in frame 22 set up a break of 69 which proved enough to see off his younger opponent, who currently holds the 30^th spot in world rankings.

"I didn't play very well at all in the first two sessions, but started to regain confidence in the final session." Fu, who was far from happy with his performance, said. "Hopefully I can play better as the tournament progresses and peak at the right time."

Fu, the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open champion, will be facing either Barry Hawkins or Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last eight of the prestigious snooker competition.

"Ronnie is the best player in the world, but if Barry wins he's going to give me a very tough job as well. In the quarter finals you don't really expect an easy game, its going to be a tough task." Fu said.

Tagsmarcu fu, anthony mcgill, world snooker, 2016 betfred world snooker championships, barry hawkins, Ronnie O' Sullivan