Stephen Maguire was left pining after the days when he had a hold over Neil Robertson after the world number one ended his run at the UK championship.
Australian Robertson got the better of Maguire at the Barbican Centre in York, winning 6-2 to deny the 32-year-old a place in the semi-finals.
Maguire, who had beaten fellow Scot John Higgins 6-3 in the fourth round, knew he would have to improve when he faced Robertson in the quarter-finals.
But still the 2010 world champion proved too much for Maguire, who was once one of the Australian cueman’s most feared opponents on tour.
“I think Neil has beaten me the last seven or eight times,” he said. “I used to own him years ago.
“I think I was 9-0 up on him in matches, Neil has definitely improved – everybody knows that.
“I was just outplayed – no excuses there. In the first frame I missed one red and I didn’t see another shot until I was 3-0 and 50-odd down. He just kept me cold.
“The best guy won on the day. When I was sat in my seat I just felt as though I was totally outplayed.
“He never missed. He just played a good match of snooker.
“I’ve seen him play better. When he’s hitting 100s all of the time he’s a bit of a machine but he hardly made many mistakes. I never got a shot really.”
Robertson dominated the early exchanges at the Barbican racing into a 4-0 lead before Maguire, the final Scot left in the draw, got on the board in the fifth frame.
The world number one responded with a break of 128 to move within one frame of the match and, after Maguire pinched the seventh, he completed the job.
Favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan was knocked out after a 6-4 quarter-final defeat to Stuart Bingham.
Bingham led 3-1 at the mid-session interval but the Rocket got himself back in the game with two sparkling centuries.
But the world number 10 held his nerve to reverse his defeat in the recent Champion of Champions final in Coventry and advance to the last four.
British Eurosport is the Home of Snooker, showing 19 tournaments this season including the World championship, UK championship, the Masters and all ranking events, available on Sky, Virgin Media & BT or online/on mobile via eurosportplayer.co.uk.