Snooker: John Higgins dug deep to book his place in the quarter-finals of this year's Kilkenny Irish Masters tonight.
Last season's Masters and Grand Prix winner last won a match at the UK Championship in December. But the gifted Scot ended that three-month drought with a 4-0 whitewash of Dubliner Michael Judge match at this year's event at the Ormonde Hotel.
Higgins was beaten 4-2 by Northern Ireland's Gerard Greene in his first best-of-seven frame group match, so needed to win his final qualifying group match 4-0 in order to progress.
And the provisional world number three did exactly that with breaks of 135, 73 and 56, although at 2-0 up he looked to be on the verge of conceding what would have proved to be a killer frame.
But the battling Scot dug deep to down Dubliner Michael Judge 4-0 to secure his place in the next phase today alongside fellow Scots Stephen Hendry and Graeme Dott.
Understandably, victory has given the former world champion plenty of much-needed confidence.
"Winning like that gives me great satisfaction," he added. "That win has given plenty of confidence. I started well and had a good break, but that's my first win this year, so I've got to be happy. It's nice to be in the quarters."
Also through to this year's quarter-finals is Barry Hawkins, a former Grand Prix semi-finalist. The left-hander defeated local favourite David Morris 4-3 earlier in the day and then proved too strong for golden oldie Jimmy White, a 4-2 winner to maintain his 100% record on Irish soil.
Both Higgins and Hawkins now join seeded players Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Graeme Dott and Ken Doherty in the last eight.