Marco Fu delighted his home fans by sealing a 5-3 win over Barry Hawkins with a 132 break in the Hong Kong Masters.
Fu trailed 3-1 in the first quarter-final of this £315,000 invitational event which has attracted eight of the world's top players.
But he reeled off four frames in a row, including runs of 75 and 53 before finishing in style with a superb 132 against the world number six.
The 39-year-old will play world number seven Neil Robertson in the semi-finals on Saturday after the Australian beat world champions Mark Selby 5-3.
World number one Selby was playing his first snooker since capturing a third World title at the Crucible back in May, having missed the first two events of the new campaign with a broken toe.
He was involved in a freak accident at home, dropping a piece of glass on hos foot, and he trailed 2-0 an 3-1 before levelling at 3-3.
But Robertson had a break of 54 to snatch a 4-3 lead and as Fu had done earlier, finished the match with a century (108).
Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy are also taking part in the sold-out tournament which has been organised as part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
