John Higgins beat He Guoqiang 6-0 to cruise into the last 16 of the UK Championship in York.
Fourteen years on from the most recent of three UK victories, Higgins hinted at a big run at the first Triple Crown title of the season with a display of total dominance.
His opening century might have proved the only one of the match but it helped him race into a 4-0 lead having conceded just 29 points prior to the mid-session interval.
And while he more than tripled that tally over the following two frames, both went Higgins' way as he set up a meeting with Judd Trump following his 6-3 victory over Neil Robertson.
The early exchanges of their match largely went the way of Robertson, who won their meeting at the Champion of Champions earlier this month.
After that match, Trump criticised Robertson's shot time, drastically up from his peak years, and suggested that the Australian had been fortunate to win.
Robertson's shot time was over the 30-second mark during the first four frames of the rematch but a century break in the last of them was enough to put him in command at 3-1.
However, the mid-session interval allowed Trump the chance to reset and he won every frame afterwards to win a largely forgettable encounter.
