Ronnie O'Sullivan continued his march towards European Masters title glory with a stunning 5-1 demolition of Tom Ford in their quarter-final in Milton Keynes.
O'Sullivan hasn't needed to be at the top of his game so far this week, but he produced his best snooker of the tournament on Friday to underline why he is overwhelming favourite to go all on the way on Sunday.
In fact, it could have been argued that Ford came into the last-eight clash with more telling form claims having impressively whitewashed John Higgins only a few days ago, a result that would ultimately count for little when he came up against a rampant Rocket.
O'Sullivan immediately looked in the mood as he put together a sublime clearance of 136 in the opening frame, before following up with a break of 90 to double his lead and then winning frame three after Ford missed the final red.
It was a similar story in the fourth frame as O'Sullivan picked Ford's pocket once again, this time when trumping Ford's initial break of 72 with a typically nerveless clearance of 74.
Ford did ensure he had something to show for his efforts when getting the better of closely-contested frame five, but O'Sullivan was unflustered and finished the job with his second century of the night, a run of 109 that booked his place in the semi-finals.
Waiting for O'Sullivan on Saturday night will be Liang Wenbo, a 5-4 winner over Anthony McGill in a match high on drama, if not always quality.
Dott stays strong to reach last four
Earlier, former world champion Graeme Dott came through another close match as he edged out Ryan Day 5-4.
Dott was never behind in the match having initially led 2-0, but must have feared the worst when splitting the reds perfectly from the blue in the deciding frame, only to see a red drop into the corner pocket and hand Day a frame and match-winning chance.
As it was, the match still had plenty of life left in it and it required a series of brilliant long pots from Dott under pressure to finally secure victory and set up a last-four meeting with Fan Zhengyi, who held off a stirring comeback from David Gilbert to win 5-3.
Dott told World Snooker Tour afterwards: "It was the worst I have played this week. Sometimes you get matches like that where the balls go scrappy, and you just have to get the win.
"It wasn’t pretty. I never felt in control, even at 2-0. I made a lot of unforced errors which I need to cut out. Either of us could have won that match.
“I don’t want to end up one of the players who always says he’s playing well in practice, but I have been doing that, and I’m not producing it in matches.
"Even today it was hard not to be disappointed because I know I can play a lot better. I just had to accept it, try to win the match and hopefully play better tomorrow."