John Higgins Stuns Ronnie O'Sullivan in Classic as Judd Trump Exits World Championship

Four-time winner John Higgins produced a sensational recovery from 8-3 and 9-4 down to defeat Ronnie O'Sullivan 13-12, but world number one Judd Trump was eliminated on a thrilling day at the Crucible.

Trump lost 13-12 to Iranian qualifier Hossein Vafaei in their last-16 tie at the World Championship on Monday evening.

Seven-time champion O'Sullivan was seeking an eighth title to set a new outright record in the modern era, and twice held five-frame leads in Sunday's second session. But Higgins won the last three frames on Sunday and maintained that form by taking the first three on Monday as O'Sullivan lost six successive frames at the Crucible for only the fifth time.

In a high-quality thriller, played out in front of an enthralled crowd, O'Sullivan won the 20th and 21st frames to regain the lead at 11-10. In surely the match of the tournament, and one of the best in the 49 years at the Sheffield theatre, Higgins won two frames in a row to move one away at 12-11, but O'Sullivan's break of 81 forced a decider.

Higgins had the first chance but missed a red into the middle at 16-0 to give O'Sullivan a lifeline, before the Englishman could only score eight points and failed to pot a red. The Scot then made a break of 49 on his way to sealing a match-winning frame, with both players getting a standing ovation as the tie finished.

The 50-year-olds are two of snooker's fabled 'Class of '92', along with 51-year-old Mark Williams, with the trio having 14 world titles between them. Higgins, the champion in 1998, 2007, 2009 and 2011, will now play either 2010 winner Neil Robertson, who defeated world number 13 Chris Wakelin 13-7.

While Higgins was beating O'Sullivan on table one, there was also drama on table two with four-time champion Mark Selby losing 13-11 against China's Wu Yize. Wu, 22, is aiming to become the second Chinese player to win the world title after compatriot Zhao Xintong last year. Ranked 10th, Wu claimed his first ranking tournament at the International Championship in November, with Selby tipping him as a future world champion. Wu would become the youngest player to win a World Championship since a 21-year-old Stephen Hendry claimed the first of his seven titles in 1990.

In the quarter-finals, Wu will face Vafaei and is in the opposite half of the draw to Zhao so a first all-China final is still possible. "Wu is young, still loving the game and not too many battle scars - good luck to the boy, I really like him," said Selby. "I think he is a World Champion in the making, it could be this year, but if not this year, I do think in his career he'll probably win it at some stage - he is that good. When he is on a run, he is hard to stop."