John Higgins became only the second snooker player to reach 1,000 career centuries despite crashing out of the English Open in Brentwood.
The 49-year-old Scot achieved the milestone with breaks of 108 and 105 in the third and fifth frames of his quarter-final clash against Mark Allen.
But it was not enough to seal a win that would have boosted his hopes of staying in the top 16 as Allen – who hit a century of his own in the opening frame – held firm in a gruelling decider to edge a 4-3 win.
Ronnie O’Sullivan is the only other player to have reached the four-figure century milestone, having done so in the final frame of his 2019 Players Championship final win over Neil Robertson.
Earlier, Judd Trump set up a quarter-final clash with China’s Wu Yize after hitting back from behind to claim a 4-2 win over Fan Zhengyi.
The world No 1 nudged one closer to joining O’Sullivan and Higgins in the thousand-century club as he reeled off a break of 101 in the course of winning three frames in a row to extend his winning run.
Mark Selby held his nerve to carve out a 4-3 win over Si Jiahui and book a last-eight meeting with India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha, who also overcame a final frame decider against China’s He Guoqiang.
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