World champion John Higgins joined Judd Trump in the semi-finals of the BGC Masters at Alexandra Palace with a controlled 6-3 victory over Graeme Dott.
Higgins stepped up the pace after heading into the mid-session interval at 2-2, breaks of 109 and 89 helping him across the line and into a Saturday semi-final against either Mark Selby or Shaun Murphy.
Earlier, UK champion Judd Trump had also made the last four with an impressive 6-2 win over Ronnie O'Sullivan, despite O'Sullivan hitting a tournament-best break of 141 in the process.
Higgins, beaten by Dott in the first round of the same tournament at Wembley last year, dropped the opening frame despite a break of 60, but fought back to take the next two before Dott levelled.
But Higgins was in command after the break, winning his final three frames with breaks over 50, while Dott's solitary response was to delay the seemingly inevitable by winning the penultimate frame.
Trump had barged into a 4-0 lead against O'Sullivan at their mid-session interval and left O'Sullivan too much to do. Trump will now play either Neil Robertson or Mark Williams in the semi-finals.
Trump said: "I've come into it full of confidence and thinking I can win it, and the players are more under pressure playing me now than I am playing them, and they all really want to beat me now,"
Asked if he felt any apprehension around the table, he replied: "Not at the moment.
"I've controlled all my games really since maybe the first round in [last month's] UK Championship. Apart from that, I've got in front and I haven't really had to come back against anyone yet."
To beat O'Sullivan, Trump also had to overcome a partisan London crowd, but the 22-year-old insisted he was never fazed by their boisterous support of his opponent.
"It was a brilliant atmosphere out there," he said. "Even though Ronnie had a lot of the support, I just go out there and play my game and hopefully they enjoy my game as much as him and come back and watch.
"Ronnie is from London, he's going to have the majority of the support, he's done what few in the game have done, so I look up to him, and I've just got enjoy it out there. If you can't enjoy that there's no point playing."
O'Sullivan, meanwhile, reflected that he was beaten by the better man on the day.
"He scored heavily, potted some fantastic balls and under pressure made some good clearances, so all credit has to go to him," O'Sullivan told a press conference.
"He's performed better than me on the day and deserved his victory.
"When someone's scoring as well as he is and full of confidence, it's hard to stop them."
