Snooker:John Higgins and Peter Ebdon closed in on the last four of the Maplin UK Championship by establishing commanding leads in their quarter-final matches today.
Higgins, a two-time former winner of the title, won the first seven frames against Joe Perry before his opponent made the only century break of the session to trail 7-1.
Ebdon capitalised on the first signs of weakness in defending champion Ding Junhui, who is playing competitively for the ninth day out of 10 having won three gold medals at the Asian Games in Qatar last week.
On the Chinese teenager's only day off, last Friday, he made the 3,000-mile trip from Doha to York and fatigue always looked likely to set in at some stage.
Ding was unable to reproduce the form he showed against Ryan Day and Matthew Stevens in his opening two contests and found himself 6-2 down to 2002 world champion Ebdon.
It was not a particularly fluent session for either man, but Dubai-based Ebdon moved to within three frames of victory when he overcame a 44-point deficit in frame eight thanks to an 88 break.
Perry, a semi-finalist in this event for the last two years, was overwhelmed by Higgins' potting prowess as the Scot compiled runs of 91, 69 and 62.
The Cambridgeshire player knocked in a 100 to avert the whitewash but has a mountain to climb tonight to deny the 'Wizard of Wishaw' a semi-final place.