Five-times winner Stephen Hendry was on course to reach his first ranking final in 20 months after taking a 5-3 lead over Graeme Dott at the Maplin UK Championship in York.
Hendry, who last contested a final at the China Open in April last year, dominated the opening session of the semi-final encounter against his fellow Scot.
His break of 133 in the third frame was the highlight of the action at the Barbican Centre, however it was world champion Dott who drew first blood, taking advantage of an unfortunate kick to win the opener with a run of 64.
World number one Hendry, who has not lost in eight previous matches against Dott, hit back to take the next two frames, making an impressive clearance in the third.
And after Hendry's last opponent Ronnie O'Sullivan threw in the towel, a determined Dott showed no such signs of giving up.
He levelled the scores at 2-2 going into the mid-session interval - taking the fourth frame on the blue following the former seven-times world champion's failure to escape a tricky snooker.
The session swung back in world number one Hendry's favour as he took the fifth and sixth frames, although Dott was left to rue a white ball screwed back into the middle pocket with the frame within his grasp.
The second seed showed typical resolve to stay in touch with a break of 49 to take the seventh frame, before 37-year-old Hendry established a deserved two-frame lead thanks to a break of 89 in the best-of-17-frame encounter.
The pair were due to resume their battle for a place in tomorrow's final against Peter Ebdon at 7.30pm this evening.
