Amid all the talk of Chinese domination, the Class of 92 show no sign of giving way just yet. On the eighth day of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins all rolled back the years. There have been plenty of shocks so far, but the three legends of the game are made of tough stuff. Williams is 50, the other two 49, but the class remains. They have won 14 world titles between them and who would bet against that figure rising to 15 a week on Monday? Higgins is not into the last eight yet. He leads 12-11 in his gruelling last-16 tie with the improving Xiao Guodong but they could not finish their match before the afternoon session began, so have to return on Saturday night after one of the evening sessions finishes. Williams secured his place in the quarter-finals with a 13-10 victory against Hossein Vafaei, and will meet Higgins if the Scot gets through. O’Sullivan soon took control against the Chinese Pang Junxu on Saturday afternoon, finishing the first session of their last-16 match with a 6-2 lead. The seven-time winner claimed each of the first four frames, with breaks of 58, 91, 50 and 63, before Pang, the world No 27, got off the mark by registering the contest’s first century break, making a 119. The Rocket swiftly hit back to secure frame six and after Pang took frame seven, O’Sullivan concluded the session by re-establishing a four-frame advantage to take into Sunday’s second session. Williams, three times the champion at the Crucible, advanced to the quarter-finals as he saw off Vafaei 13-10. The Welshman extended his 9-7 lead at the start of the session to 11-8, but Vafaei took the next two frames to get within one of level pegging before Williams wrapped things up, finishing with a break of 115. View image in fullscreen Mark Williams rolled back the years with an impressive 13-10 win against Hossein Vafaei, to secure his place in the last eight at the Crucible. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA The marathon clash between Higgins and Xiao could not be decided inside three sessions. Facing a race against time to complete the match before the afternoon action commenced, four-time Crucible champion Higgins won two frames in a row after the mid-session interval but was frustrated by Xiao with the winning post in sight, as the world No 14 battled back to make it 12-11 just over four hours after the session began. The pair will return to finish on Saturday evening, playing on the first available table after the scheduled matches. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to The Recap Free weekly newsletter The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s action Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion There had been nothing to separate them after each of the first two sessions, which finished at 4-4 and 8-8 respectively. And the third session followed the same pattern as no player led by more than one frame until after the interval on Saturday, with Higgins bouncing back from losing the opener by taking the next two before Xiao levelled at 10-10, winning a mammoth frame that lasted more than an hour. Scotland’s Higgins came out firing after the interval, making a break of 84 to take the 21st frame – his 2,000th at the Crucible. With time running out in the session, Higgins took the next frame despite missing a fairly straightforward pink at 65-0 up to open the door for Xiao, who was unable to amass the points he needed to overturn his deficit. Requiring one more frame to win the match at 1.40pm, the 49-year-old appeared on course for victory but let Xiao back in and was punished. Zhao Xintong, fancied by many to win the world championship, possibly this year, leads his Chinese compatriot Lei Peifan 10-6 after winning the morning session 5-3. Chris Wakelin, who has beaten Neil Robertson and Mark Allen, lies in wait for the winner in the quarter-finals.