John Higgins will meet Ronnie O'Sullivan tomorrow in the final of the Citywest Irish Masters later today after a superb semi-final victory over Dave Harold last night.
The world number four, appearing in his first ranking tournament semi-final since October 2001, defeated his Stoke rival 6-4.
Earlier, O'Sullivan beat Paul Hunter 6-3 and the duo now face a repeat of last September's Regal Masters final in Glasgow.
O'Sullivan won on that occasion but Higgins showed again yesterday evening that he is close to his best.
The former world champion looked bang in trouble when he trailed 3-1 at the mid-session interval as Harold produced his best snooker of the season.
But helped by breaks of 75, 74, 71 and 108 plus a bad error by his opponent in frame six, Higgins took command.
Harold led 31-0 in the sixth but went for a risky red instead of playing a percentage safety shot and paid the penalty.
The 27-year-old Scot then should have finished off the game at 6-3 but from a position of strength allowed Harold to hit back with 71 for 5-4.
However, there was to be no final-frame decider and Higgins can look forward to a potentially explosive clash against O'Sullivan.
"At 3-1 down I felt I was still hitting the ball well and just kept waiting for my chance," said the winner.
"Dave might take a bit longer than the rest but he does not give you many opportunities.
"When he does you have got to take them. I think that red he missed in the sixth frame was a turning point but the nerves were jangling.
"In that last frame I think it was going to be whoever got in first would win it. Thankfully, it was me."