Former champion John Higgins held off a dogged fightback from tournament favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan to clinch a 13-9 quarter-final victory at the 888.com World Championship.
Resuming 11-5 ahead, the 1998 winner needed just two frames to ensure an all-Scottish semi-final with Stephen Maguire.
But he was given a scare by a much-improved O'Sullivan, who began to rediscover the fluency which deserted him in the morning session, when the world number three took just one frame.
O'Sullivan took the first two frames to cut the deficit, making a 70 break in the 18th, before Higgins moved within one frame of victory in the next with a run of 58.
O'Sullivan rallied again, recording a 93 break to cut the gap, but the comeback was to end there as Higgins kept his cool after a tense exchange.
The Scot, who beat O'Sullivan in last season's Masters final as well as the Grand Prix final earlier in the season, admitted afterwards the damage had been done in the middle session.
He said: 'Ronnie came out of the blocks firing. I had a few half chances earlier on, missed, and it seemed to give him the spark he needed because he was beginning to dance around the table.
'It was just about keeping my composure at the end.
'The standard wasn't that great in the first four of the morning session, Ronnie didn't play that well at all, but the final four frames were the turning points in the match.
'Obviously he was the favourite, he's a great player, he's won everything, but I fancied winning. I have beat him a few times and backed myself to win the match.'
Earlier, former UK champion Stephen Maguire hardly gave Anthony Hamilton a shot as he booked his semi-final spot with minimal fuss.
The Scot took exactly an hour to wrap up the four frames required for victory, recording ruthless runs of 96, 137 and 108 along the way to a 13-7 win over the world number 16.
'He never got a chance at all,' Maguire said.
"I decided to open the balls up and have a go for the first few frames because I had a two-frame gap.'
And the number nine seed believes he is finally starting to feel like his old self, having spent the last 18 months living in the shadow of his UK triumph.
He added: 'I'm not doing anything different. Snooker is just a game of confidence and mental strength.
'After the UK a lot of the boys played well against me and beat me and I didn't take it well - you start to lose confidence and start play badly as a result of that.
'This season I've had a lot of good results, although I've not won a trophy but I've not lost a first-round match which has helped my ranking - it's just a block of things coming together.'
Hamilton admitted the better man had won after making his fourth Crucible quarter-final exit.
'He was better all the way through the match,' he said. 'When he's playing well he's as good as anyone.'
