Ronnie O'Sullivan turned on the afterburners to beat Hossein Vafaei 6-2 and reach his ninth UK Championship final.
O'Sullivan was never behind in the match and after the first four frames were shared, the pair exchanging centuries in a blistering start, after the interval it was one-way traffic as Vafaei succumbed to his snookering hero.
Although O'Sullivan was not given the scares of previous rounds this week, he was still perhaps a level below his best through the middle of the match, but his ruthless streak was in evidence again towards the end of it.
Century No. 1️⃣2️⃣2️⃣8️⃣ for Ronnie O'Sullivan 🚀
— Eurosport (@eurosport) December 2, 2023
He makes it 2-0 with his 4th century of the week and his 26th of the season.#UKChampionship pic.twitter.com/gHHHYKkhtZ
The key moment came in frame six when Vafaei looked set to level again only to miss the simplest of reds to middle, and another easy black went begging in the next as he fell 5-2 behind.
O'Sullivan signed off with a 90 clearance, his fourth half-century alongside a sumptuous 113 in frame two, though again it came following an early miss from his opponent.
Vafaei's error-strewn performance left O'Sullivan with a relatively simple task in the end and he'll expect a stiffer examination when he goes after an eighth UK title in Sunday's final, where he'll face Ding Junhui following his 6-4 defeat of Judd Trump.
Ding showed few signs of the jitters which had been noticeable in his defeat of Mark Allen at the start of the week, coming from 3-2 behind in a high-quality encounter to continue his love affair with the event.
It means he'll now go through to face his one-time mentor, O'Sullivan, in a mouthwatering final, one for which O'Sullivan will start favourite.
"It was all right," O'Sullivan had earlier told Eurosport. "It was acceptable, I suppose, something to work with. The dynamic stuff wasn't there but it doesn't have to be sometimes, steady is all right.
"He made my job a little bit easier."
O'Sullivan went on to tell the assembled media that his career goal is to 'ruin careers' by keeping big titles off the CVs of some of his biggest rivals on the World Snooker Tour.
"I’m just hanging around so people don’t get as good as a career as me," quipped O’Sullivan.
"If I could stop (Mark) Selby winning a few, and Judd winning a few, and Ding and (Neil) Robertson winning a few – just ruin their careers a little bit – that would be great. Sometimes that’s just a nice motivation to play."
'I came so far, I'm so proud of myself'
Vafaei confessed that he had not been able to rise to the occasion of playing his idol, who thumped him with a session to spare when they met at the Crucible in April.
"Every day is different, today was my worst day," said Vafaei. "I don't have that heart to play against my hero, to go and kill, you know?
"I lost to my hero. There was only one man who could stop me in this tournament, I think, and it was Ronnie O'Sullivan.
"To be honest, when I look at my path, where I am standing right now, that means how far I came. I'm playing against my hero. I came so far, I'm so proud of myself."
