Ronnie O'Sullivan was in devastating form today as he crushed Joe Perry to stride into the PartyPoker.net German Masters quarter-finals.
Having scrambled back from 4-0 behind to win his opening match against Andrew Higginson yesterday, O'Sullivan took a more familiar path to victory against Perry, firing two centuries in a 5-1 success.
Now the 36-year-old looks primed to keep his place in the world's top 16, when at the height of his problems against Higginson he was set to drop out and put his automatic place in the World Championship at risk.
With only the Welsh Open to come before the cut-off point in the rankings to decide the Crucible field, O'Sullivan has tightened his grip, making the trip to Berlin a possible turning point after a period of decline.
He came to Germany as the world number 16 but is now handily placed to climb, and judging by his destructive performance against Perry, the three-time world champion could be in line for his first major ranking event title since the 2009 Shanghai Masters.
O'Sullivan began with a break of 110, was briefly pegged back to 1-1 by Perry, but then left the 37-year-old from Cambridgeshire in his chair for much of the rest of their one-sided contest.
Further breaks of 74, 69, 123 and 57 inflicted the damage as O'Sullivan set up a quarter-final - to be played tonight - against Wales' Matthew Stevens, a surprise 5-1 conqueror of Neil Robertson.
O'Sullivan said on worldsnooker.com: "I needed to score well. I'm pleased with the way I played."
Robertson, a good friend of Perry's, withdrew from last weekend's Shoot-Out event in Blackpool due to illness and could not produce the form which brought him the BGC Masters title at Alexandra Palace in January as former World Championship runner-up Stevens eased through.
Mark Williams, the defending champion this week, posted a brisk 5-2 win over Stuart Bingham and will play Stephen Lee tonight.
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