Home favourite Brendan Dolan returned to the semi-finals of the PartyPoker.com World Grand Prix with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Justin Pipe in Dublin.
'History Maker' Dolan gave an excited crowd at the Citywest Hotel the perfect start with 107 and 101 finishes when taking the first set, and although Pipe hit back to take the next the Northern Irishman always looked too sharp - especially on finishing doubles.
"There's a lot of work to be done, tonight I don't think that I performed that well," Dolan told Sky Sports.
"My finishing just got me through which I think it has done for most of the last two months, I feel there's a lot more in me and I'm just waiting for it to come out.
"It's great for me to be back in the semi-final here again. It proves that I'm not a one-hit wonder and I can mix it with the best in the world.
"This is one of the toughest competitions with the double start and mentally it's hard to cope with because this is something different."
The Irishman faces Mervyn King next after he cruised past Robert Thornton, the conqueror of Phil Taylor, 3-0 in the last of Friday night's quarter-finals.
Michael van Gerwen had it tougher as he battled his way into the last four with a 3-2 defeat of Andy Hamilton.
Van Gerwen was always in front but the World Championship finalist is a renowned scrapper, as shown when he nailed a brilliant 160 checkout to force the match into a deciding fifth set.
That came after four missed darts at tops by Van Gerwen for the match, but he finally got the job done in a deciding leg to win 3-2 and take up his place against Wes Newton in Saturday's semis.
Newton is the final seed still standing after he produced a remarkable comeback to stun Paul Nicholson 3-2 and move one win away from the final.
Newton looked down and out when he 2-0 down and Nicholson had darts for the match, but he then went on a run of seven winning legs out of eight to level the scores up in sets and go 2-0 ahead in the decider.
In an amazing finish, Newton was first whitewashed after missing 12 darts at double to get off the mark, before both men suffered with nerves and 'The Asset' Nicholson lost his cool by missing nine darts at the double to allow Newton to step up and complete the win.
