He rammed in breaks of 128 and 119 to leave Murphy stuck in his seat, and when the 2005 champion did begin to fight back he left himself too much ground to make up.

Now O’Sullivan heads into a last-eight tussle with Higgins, which begins tomorrow afternoon and has the potential to be a classic match.

The meeting of the three-time former champions has come so early in the tournament because of O’Sullivan’s slide in the seedings this season, caused by his failure to win a ranking event match since September prior to coming to Sheffield.

But with guidance in the past fortnight from sports psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters, O’Sullivan has put himself in a positive frame of mind, and although his long potting has been erratic, it does not appear to have affected the rest of his game.

O’Sullivan versus Murphy had been branded a grudge match.

Murphy called O’Sullivan’s behaviour “pathetic”, “disrespectful” and “unprofessional” last September, when he had to be coaxed by referee Jan Verhaas to pot the final black to complete a 147 at the World Open in Glasgow.

But the talk of a clash in personalities obviously did not trouble O’Sullivan as he controlled the match, leading all the way.

There was a late stumble, O’Sullivan missing an easy red when he was two balls away from clinching the match in the 21st frame and allowing Murphy to cut his lead.

Murphy edged the next frame too, and when he led 57-0 in frame 13 he suddenly had all the momentum.

But the Irthlingborough man missed a quite straightforward red and it gave O’Sullivan the chance he was waiting for.

In went a break of 71, the pair shook hands, and O’Sullivan had survived his scare.