Stephen Maguire set up a mouth-watering semi-final showdown with Ronnie O'Sullivan via a convincing victory over Neil Robertson at the SAGA Insurance Masters.
The 2004 UK champion was in confident mood at the Wembley Arena as he sent Aussie ace Robertson crashing out 6-2.
'That's two good wins I've had,' said a delighted Maguire. 'Neil's a good friend. It was a good match - it's just a pity one of us had to get knocked out, because we both play the game well and open the game up and go for our long shots.
'If we're both on form it's good to watch for the crowd. He beat Mark Williams 6-0 in his first match, so he was hitting the ball well.'
Maguire soon knew he might be in for a tough match - but he upped his game when he needed to.
'Neil's knocked in a hundred and was looking sharp,' he said. 'But I responded well in the next two frames - and I think that made the difference.
'He won the first frame, but I responded well and stole the frame before the interval to lead 3-1 - and he wasn't happy. I was counting on that - and at 4-1 I would have really have had to throw the match away to lose.'
Earlier this week, Maguire knocked out defending champion and fellow Scot John Higgins.
But he said: 'I played a lot better tonight than when I played John. He had an off day and got bogged down, but tonight I was hitting the ball a lot better.
'I was hitting the ball well. But I'm going to have to improve on that performance if I'm going to reach the final - because I'm playing Ronnie next.'
Left-hander Robertson started the better - and with a cool break of 126, he easily won the first frame of the evening.
Back came the world number nine, though - and it was one-way traffic for the next five frames.
A break of 80 levelled matters, and a 57 was enough to see the former European Open champion edge ahead for the first time in the match.
After more than 30 minutes of battling, Maguire went 3-1 ahead at the mid-session interval with breaks of 43 and then 20 to clinch the frame.
It got even better as further breaks of 59 and 75 saw Maguire put himself within one frame of victory.
Robertson reduced his arrears by winning a long-winded seventh frame, but that merely delayed the inevitable as Maguire deservedly went through with a four-frame cushion.
