Dave Gilbert seized control of his World Championship semi-final against John Higgins by winning three of their first four frames on Friday morning.

Gilbert fired a break of 125 as he turned a 5-3 overnight lead into an 8-4 advantage as Higgins made a series of uncharacteristic errors.

Gilbert missed chances to stretch his lead further in the 12th frame before Higgins cleared up the colours to give himself a glimmer of hope. 

Typically, Higgins exploited his lucky escape by winning the two frames after the mid-session interval to haul the deficit back to 8-6.

But when the momentum of the match looked set to switch back in favour of the Scot, Gilbert responded with a superb 72 break to extend his lead again.

Higgins' inconsistency emerged again in the final frame of the session when a missed blue let Gilbert in to clear the remaining colours and establish a 10-6 lead.