The second phase of the 2021 Apply Mortgages Ultimate Pool Masters begins on Monday with a mouthwatering quartet of major champions taking to the baize.

Only one of Jordan Shepherd, Chris Melling, Phil Harrison or Rob Chilton will survive the session and make it through to the Finals Night in late August and stay in with a shout for the title, trophy and £10,000 top prize.

In a slight tweak to the format from the opening rounds of the competition, matches from the last 16 onwards will be 45 minutes long with the opening 35 minutes under a 30-second shot clock and the final 10 minutes under a 15-seconds shot clock. The target is now race to seven. Players still have one extension per frame throughout.

HOW THEY MADE IT THROUGH Shepherd broke off the event in style back at the start of April as he emerged from the opening group having scored impressive victories over Clint I’Anson (7-6) and Jez Graham (8-4)

Against Graham in the group final, “The Welsh Wizard” rattled off six of the final seven frames.

Fresh from his victory at the Vinny Champions League a few weeks earlier, Melling made strides towards another major televised title after coming through Group 2.

“The Magician” wasn’t quite at his brutal best but he managed to see off the gallant effort of youngster Luke Gilbert 8-5 with a trio of break dishes and then the experienced former European Champion Dylan Leary 6-4 in the group decider. Of all four qualifiers, Harrison has arguably been the most impressive so far.

The 2009 World Champion was given a severe workout as he squeezed past Greg Batten 6-5 first up before producing a remarkable performance in dispatching Marc Farnsworth 8-1 – a display in which he registered three break dishes and two reverse dishes.

Evergreen Harrison certainly appeared more at ease with the shot clock in this event compared to the quicker paced Champions League.

In Group 4, former International Masters winner Chilton enjoyed a night of pool he’ll never forget, eliminating two very different former world champions.

The Dudley star saw off replacement wildcard 16-time world darts champion Phil Taylor with minimal fuss and then edged out 1998 World Champion Carl Morris 5-4 in a topsy-turvy affair where there was never more than a frame between them – Chilton chalking up three break dishes during the tie.

Live action begins on Monday at 6.30pm (1830 BST) on FreeSports TV.

FreeSports is available on Freeview HD channel 64, Sky HD channel 422, Virgin HD 553, TalkTalk 64, BT Vision channel 64 and also available on the FreeSports Player — www.freesportsplayer.tv.