Ken Doherty made it to the last four of the £441,000 event in Aberdeen yesterday but was less than impressive as he ended the giant-killing run of Ebdon's one-time stablemate Mark Davis. The 31-year-old Dubliner defeated qualifier Davis 53 but made only one half century break.

However, he potted the balls that mattered, coming from 2-0 down to notch his 13th successive win in ranking tournaments this year. The Irishman's achievement has helped him to win the Welsh Open and Thailand Masters titles.

Two more victories and he will become only the third player in snooker history to capture three successive ranking titles.

Davis, responsible for the defeat of title holder Ronnie O'Sullivan, certainly had chances to record his seventh victory in the competition. But Doherty took a crucial 4-3 lead by potting the final pink and scrambled his way through frame eight.

"It's nice to get through not playing my best but Mark made it tough for me," said the provisional world number four, who now faces Paul Hunter, a 5-2 winner over Joe Swail.

Peter Ebdon, who has emerged as a genuine world title contender, still has unfinished business to attend to in Aberdeen this week.

The world number 12 is through to the semi-finals after a highly impressive 5-2 victory over Scottish hope Alan McManus. And Ebdon also has luck going his way as a big fluke in frame five helped swing the contest his way.

A last-16 winner over world champion and world number one Mark Williams, the 30-year-old Londoner made back-toback century breaks and added runs of 88 and 82.

The 88 in frame five was started by a fluke after he trailed 50-1.