UK Championship 2016: Mark Selby thrashes Zhang Anda to reach last eight

World champion Mark Selby swept aside China's Zhang Anda 6-1 to move into the quarter-finals of the UK Championship.

Zhang won the opening frame but Selby then took control, scoring two fifties and two centuries for a stylish win.

World number one Selby said: "That's the best I have played in the tournament. I felt good."

Ronnie O'Sullivan and Shaun Murphy went through with 6-2 wins in the afternoon, while Marco Fu thrashed Oliver Lines 6-0 in the other evening match.

• Pro tour needs cutting - O'Sullivan

• Schedule and results

England's Selby, the 2012 UK champion who will play either John Higgins or Mark Allen in the last eight on Friday, said: "It's a tough game either way.

"They are both quality players. Hopefully this might be the year I win a second title."

Lines, 21, the world number 61, had chances in all of the first three frames but world number 15 Fu took advantage of his opponent's mistakes and finished with a flourish, scoring a classy 118 in frame four.

The 2008 runner-up faces either David Gilbert or Jamie Jones in Friday's quarter-finals after ending Leeds professional Lines' fine run.

New balls, please

World number six Murphy said a change of balls was behind his victory over China's Zhou Yuelong.

The Nottingham man made breaks of 96, 110, 80 and 79 after the mid-session interval to set up a last-eight meeting with Luca Brecel or Stephen Maguire.

Murphy has long advocated replacing or repolishing the balls regularly - a process he says helps avoid kicks and bad contact.

"When the balls go where they're meant to, you get good games," said the 34-year-old. "In the first four frames we were all at sea.

Shaun Murphy also made a break of 79 to win the second frame against Zhou Yuelong

"Pretty much every third or fourth shot there was a kick or a bad bounce. It made us both look silly and could have been 4-0 either way. The new set of balls completely changed the match."

Murphy had also led 5-2 in the third round, against Welshman Dominic Dale, but only scraped through 6-5.

The 2008 UK champion was delighted with the way he closed out the match against the Chinese teenager - one of the game's rising stars.

"I was very pleased my day's work," added Murphy.

"When I got to 5-2, I took my chance rather than being worried about ifs, buts and maybes."

Sign up to My Sport to follow snooker news and reports on the BBC app.