Ronnie O'Sullivan found form to beat Shaun Murphy 6-2 in under three hours and progress to the Masters final, where he'll face Ali Carter.
O'Sullivan lamented his performance in the quarter-finals and had appeared vulnerable at times against Ding Junhui before that, but he was better here to make it a remarkable 14 semi-final wins from 15.
He'll now bid to do what he did at the UK Championship last month and become the oldest winner of an event in which he's already the youngest winner, and if doing so would be two-thirds of the way to winning all three Triple Crown events in the same season – one of the few things in snooker he's yet to achieve.
Murphy's two frames came courtesy of two centuries, evidence that he was in the sort of touch required to cause an upset had he been given the chance, but O'Sullivan was just too good.
'They still can't beat me!'
And he was in a playful mood afterwards, telling Eurosport: "I've just heard what Steve Davis said, he said I shouldn't try and entertain the crowd, but I never have tried to entertain the crowd.
"I've just always tried to go out there and play snooker the way I know I can, and if the crowd enjoy that then great, but that's never been my philosophy. I just like to play the game well and if I don't, I get frustrated.
"The start of the match there was a few mistakes, but then I cleaned it up a little bit. I need to do that these days because I can't pot as well as these guys, but I can make good breaks amongst the balls and make up for it that way.
"I don't feel that old, I feel young in my mind, I feel young when I'm round the table. I feel a lot younger than these young players, they look old, their brains are quite slow. I still feel like my brain's pretty quick.
"They need to get their act together, I'm going blind, I got a dodgy arm and bad knees, and they still can't beat me!"
Murphy said: "It actually felt as though I played better in that match than I player in the previous two, as mad as that sounds. Against the best of all time, it's an even sterner test than ever.
"I thought the crowd were phenomenal, it was a great experience out there. They're a really fair crowd, very respectful, and they created a wonderful atmosphere.
"Against the best player of all time, any small mistake, when he's in that mood... if he plays like that, he's the winner.
Murphy faced some criticism for being part of the BBC's commentary team late on Friday night, when Mark Allen and Mark Selby played out an 11-frame match, but maintained it didn't affect his performance.
"I'm getting a bit tired of it, to be honest. People need to finding something other to talk about. I've been doing it three or four years, people need to get over themselves.
"If I thought it was detrimental to my life I wouldn't be doing it. People need to cop onto themselves and find something else to talk about."
Carter bagged three centuries in a 6-3 victory over Mark Allen, holding his nerve impressively against an opponent who was uncharacteristically careless among the balls.
It's Carter's second Masters final, the first coming behind close doors in Milton Keynes three years ago, and victory would be the biggest of his career.
"I really got it going in the middle there," said Carter. "I really held myself together well, and delighted to have a crack at The Rocket tomorrow!"