Higgins through to semi finals at the Masters

Dott took the opening frame against Higgins on the black, calmly clearing the table with a break of 46 - which proved to be his highest of the match - after a fluked red into the centre pocket when escaping from a snooker.

Higgins levelled and then went ahead after a remarkable incident midway through the third frame when referee Jan Verhaas stopped Dott in the middle of a break to check a monitor regarding an earlier foul.

Dott then missed his next shot and Higgins cleared with a break of 52.

A run of 41 from Dott made it all-square at the interval, but sizeable breaks in the next three frames put Higgins in command at 5-2.

Dott kept the match alive by winning a scrappy eighth frame, snookering his opponent on the yellow and clearing to the pink, but Higgins wrapped things up with an assured 89.

"Luckily for me Graeme didn't really turn up tonight," said Higgins, yet to win a tournament this season. "He started well but I won the third frame to make it 2-1 so that was probably a turning point.

"You hope to play your way into the tournament. It was decent stuff, but Graeme didn't play anything like the way he can play which was good for me.

"You could probably have looked at the four quarter-finals and you could have tossed a coin for all four of them, that's what I felt. I'm through, Judd's through, and it wouldn't surprise you whoever came through the other two. It's going to be a great weekend I'm sure, with two good semi-finals.

"The crowds have been great this week, they really understand the game. The venue is more intimate, it's a little more gladiatorial, that's what I like."