Snooker: Tournament favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan is two frames away from exiting the World Championship after being blown away by John Higgins.
The 1998 Crucible champion took seven of this morning's eight quarter-final second-session frames, making five breaks in excess of 50 to take an 11-5 lead into tonight's final session.
Resuming at 4-4, both players began nervously but it was the number five seed who eventually prospered in the opener, what proved to be the longest frame of the match thus far.
The Scot has had the better of two-time Sheffield champion O'Sullivan of late, defeating him 10-9 in last year's Masters final and also in the Grand Prix final in Preston earlier in the season.
And he again grasped the initiative over the 31-year-old, pinching the 10th frame with a run of 71 before taking the remaining two before the interval - including a 53 break in the 12th.
O'Sullivan looked a shadow of the player who displayed such fluency in defeating Neil Robertson in the second round, becoming increasingly frustrated at his inability to close out frames.
It was easy to see why the number four seed's last ranking tournament victory came at the Irish Masters in 2005 such was his inconsistency, but he rallied momentarily to take the 13th with a break of 53.
But Higgins, who ended Fergal O'Brien's challenge in the previous round, rarely looked troubled after that.
He took all three of the remaining frames to leave O'Sullivan needing a stunning comeback, for no other player has managed to recover from such a deficit in a best of 25 frames encounter.
The Wizard of Wishaw stole the 14th on the black with a break of 65 before extending his lead further with a run of 94.
A break of 61 ended when the 'Rocket' missed a long green into the corner pocket and again he was made to pay for his profligacy as the number five seed again stole it on the black.