Chinese teenager Ding Junhui continued his irresistible form to move stylishly into the semi-finals of the Travis Perkins UK Championship in York.
The 18-year-old, who won the China Open as a wild-card entry last season, won the battle of the young guns 9-5 against Australian rising star Neil Robertson and showed his impressive break-building is undoubtedly good enough to capture the sport's second most prestigious ranking title.
In his three previous matches at the final stages of the tournament Ding had conceded a total of only eight frames as he swept away Anthony Hamilton, Jimmy White and Paul Hunter, and this emphatic performance confirmed he was anything but flattered by those results.
Breaks of 102, 77 and 65 helped the Shanghai youngster to a 5-3 lead at the interval and he never looked like being pegged back on the resumption, extending his advantage to 8-4 before wrapping it up with a 92 to overturn a 36-point lead
for Robertson in frame 14.
Ding's semi-final opponent will be world number 14 Joe Perry, who reached the last four for the second consecutive year with a 9-8 success against Stuart Bingham.
Perry was edged out in a decider by David Gray for a place in the 2004 showdown, but has a chance to make amends after he ended the superb run of Bingham, who has been in tremendous form in this season's qualifiers and had won his last 13 matches in all competitions.
Apart from when Perry led 2-0 there was never more than a frame between the pair and after he took control of the last, an excellent long red from off the baulk cushion put it out of Bingham's grasp.
