Ken Doherty ended five months without a world-ranking event quarter-final appearance last night, seeing off David Gray 5-1 at the Citywest Irish Masters in Dublin.
The 34-year-old bounced back from the loss of the opening frame to reel off five in a row and will be back on the table tonight to face Anthony Hamilton for a place in the last four.
Gray's 59 set him up to win the first, but once Doherty had put that setback behind him he started to show some of the fluency which has rarely been seen from him since last year's run to the Embassy World Championship final.
His run of 82 was the only score of frame two, and after Gray had been unlucky to go in off while potting the last red in the third, Doherty cleared from yellow to pink.
The Dubliner then added breaks of 92 and 67 on the way to leading 4-1, and after trailing for almost all of frame six, eventually won it by stroking in a long black.
"It was a much better game tonight than the last round," said a clearly delighted Doherty.
Ronnie O'Sullivan beat Brian Morgan 5-0, as he attempts to become the first player to retain this title since Steve Davis in 1994. O'Sullivan will face Peter Ebdon in the quarter-finals tomorrow.