Peter Ebdon broke the resolve of title-holder Ding Junhui to secure a Maplin UK Championship semi-final against John Higgins.
The 2002 world champion ground out a 9-5 victory, as Ding's hectic schedule finally appeared to catch up with him.
Winner of three gold medals at last week's Asian Games in Qatar, the Chinese teenager was playing competitively for the ninth day out of 10 - and last Friday flew 3,000 miles from Doha to England.
Fatigue always looked likely to set in at some stage, and today Ding was unable to reproduce the form he showed against Ryan Day and Matthew Stevens in his opening two contests.
Ebdon raced into a 4-0 lead and was 6-2 ahead after the first session, which he ended by overturning a 44-point deficit with a break of 88.
A fightback looked on the cards tonight when the 19-year-old hauled himself back to just 6-5 down. But a respotted black which went Ebdon's way then proved pivotal, and it became one-way traffic.
As Ding sat in his chair with his head bowed, clearly exhausted, the 36-year-old Dubai-based player completed his triumph in style with a break of 99.
Higgins, another former world champion, swept into the semi-finals with a 9-3 demolition of Joe Perry.
The two-time former winner of the sport's second-most prestigious ranking title led 7-1 after the first session and although Perry made a century break in two of the frames he won, the Cambridgeshire player had no answer to Higgins' potting prowess.
A 128 by Perry that made it 8-2 was merely delaying the inevitable and while the world number 19 also took the next frame, Higgins wrapped it up with a 106.
'It could easily have been 4-4 after the first session because Joe missed three or four good chances in the balls,' said the 'Wizard of Wishaw'.
'I managed to get in and clear up and they are the frames that kill you if you lose them. That's what won me the match basically - a few clearances under pressure.'
