Shaun Murphy maintained his 100% unbeaten record against Steve Davis to send the five-times champion crashing out at the Saga Masters at Wembley Arena tonight.
The 2005 world champion triumphed 6-3 in the pair's second-round clash, and the Rotherham player's victory could have been even more comprehensive as he missed a chance to win 6-1.
Davis, runner-up at the UK Championship at the end of last year, reduced his arrears by snatching the seventh and eighth frames.
But that only delayed the inevitable as Murphy, a beaten quarter-finalist at the Masters last year won the next frame for a convincing victory.
Murphy pocketed a 73 break for a 1-0 advantage, only to see Davis hit back by snatching a scrappy second.
However, it was one-way traffic from there on in as Murphy compiled breaks of 59, 71, 64 and 52 for a commanding 5-1 advantage, leaving himself within one frame of a place in the last eight.
Davis had a match-high break of 61 in the eighth frame as he battled back to 5-3 behind, but a 57 break from Murphy in the ninth frame made sure of the win.
Murphy now meets six-time Masters champion Stephen Hendry on Friday evening in the last quarter-final of the richest invitational event in the snooker calendar.
