Higgins recovered from a poor opening session to rip through the last six frames with no reply, destroying his 20-year-old opponent from Leeds 9-4.

He now faces Welsh hope Matthew Stevens in a battle for the £75,000 champion's prize.

In the closing four frames, world champion Higgins took his revenge on Hunter who upset him 9-5 to take the Welsh Open final at Newport last January, by scoring a staggering 335 points to just 12.

Double on

Hunter did not pot a ball in the last three frames as the 23-year-old Scotsman from Wishaw made breaks of 71, 101 and 89.

After the match he said: "I felt the form I showed towards the end of the match has been coming for a long time."

"When I lost to Paul in Newport he was the underdog and had nothing to lose.

"This time, deep down, he knew he could win and that created extra pressure for him."

Higgins is now in with a chance of taking both the World and UK titles in the same season - a feat achieved by just four other players.

'Satisfaction'

He is favourite to take the final from Stevens, who ranks number 26 in the world and lost to Higgins in the semis of the 1997 Grand Prix.

Shrugging off the early frames that saw him slump to 3-1, 4-3 and very nearly 5-3, Higgins said: "Though it's nice to play well, if you can get through a tournament as important as this without doing anything special, that gives you an extra bit of satisfaction.

"I gave Paul chance after chance and he didn't take advantage."