Judd Trump stormed into the quarter-finals of the UK Championship with a 6-0 win over Jamie Jones in York.
The 34-year-old had been suffering the apparent effects of flu as he arrived at the tournament, but followed up his opening 6-1 victory over Pang Junxu with another convincing display.
Trump – who became only the fifth player in history to win three back-to-back ranking tournaments last month – never looked back after starting with a break of 100, for a 950th career century.
Welshman Jones continued to be punished for mistakes, with Trump capitalising to take the third frame with a break of 59 before another half-century saw him heading into the interval with a commanding 4-0 lead.
Although Jones built a potential frame-winning chance when back on the table, his run ended at 44 which allowed Trump to close out the fifth before sealing victory in the next by 84-0.
Trump has reached the final of the UK Championship three times, winning his solitary title in 2011, and on current form looks a strong contender for this year’s trophy.
“I feel like if I can get through those first couple of rounds then I’m playing amazing and it takes something really special to beat me,” Trump said to BBC Sport following his win over Jones.
“A lot of other players perform the same in all conditions, but my cue action, where I come across the ball and hit with a little bit of side at impact, I have to get used to how the table is playing with side a lot more than other players.
“The first game I am really nervous, but when I know how I am playing on the table it just becomes easy for me.”
Trump will face Mark Selby in the last eight after his late-night last-frame win over Barry Hawkins.
“I am full of confidence, but also the opposition hasn’t stood up to me, which sometimes I don’t really like because you get through too easy and you’re not pushed,” Trump said before Selby’s match.
“I know in the next game whoever I play, I am going to have to up my standard.”
On the other table during Wednesday’s afternoon session at the Barbican, Ding Junhui saw off Tom Ford 6-3 to reach the last eight.
Ding – who has won the tournament three times and was runner-up to Mark Allen last year – opened with breaks of 126 and 110, but Ford hit back with runs of 118 and 98 to level the match.
It remained a close contest as Ford battled to stay in touch, before Ding edged the eighth frame and then closed out victory with a break of 106, which should secure his place in next year’s Masters.
Selby eventually came through a tense final-frame decider which lasted almost an hour to eventually see off Hawkins 6-5.
After opening with a 142 clearance – the highest break of the UK Championship so far – and then a break of 101, Selby looked in control at 3-1.
Hawkins, though, dug in after a 133 break and gained late momentum with two more runs of 84 and 88 to draw level.
Both men spurned chances to take a nerve-shredding decider before Selby sunk a superb blue off the bottom cushion into the top-left corner and followed with the pink to win it 68-57.
Ding will meet British Open winner Mark Williams for a place in the semi-finals after he beat fellow Welshman Jamie Clarke 6-4.
Clarke made a break of 128 in the second frame, but veteran Williams produced a vintage display kicked off with 138 in the next and followed with another century in the seventh frame before a clearance of 100 wrapped things up.
