It was the Gloucester man's second top eight scalp of the week after earlier disposing of Stephen Maguire in the opening round. He now meets Stephen Lee for a place in Sunday's final.

Milkins, who is one of the quickest players in the game, got off to a perfect start as breaks of 117 and 97 saw him into a 2-0 lead. Higgins, who is starting to find some form as the season reaches the home straight, fired in runs of 67 and 136 to level things at the interval.

In a high quality match-up, Milkins compiled breaks of 75 and 76, to get within one of victory before Higgins fought back with a run of 91. Two scoring visits from Milkins in the next were enough for a superb win.

Extra special

"I played really well and John played really well too, so it was a shame to see a loser," said Milkins. "I've never beaten John but to beat him like that when he was playing so well was extra special for me.

"I've played a lot better but that was definitely the best I've played at that stage of the tournament. I've been doing quite a bit of work with Terry Griffiths and I've been putting in some good performances recently and he's made a big difference.

"I take every match as it comes but I don't think I'll have a tougher match than I had tonight. I'm here to win the tournament, just like the other three.

"That was a dream, not just beating John but playing like I did as he chucked the kitchen sink at me. I'd have been devastated if I'd have lost that match the way I played."

Higgins added: "That was one of the best matches I've played all year and I still lost - he played great snooker."

Stephen Lee continued his good form to reach his second semi-final in a month as he out-scrapped Graeme Dott to take a 5-1 victory.

Lee failed to replicate his superb showing when he beat Neil Robertson a day earlier, but his 'B game' was good enough to seal the victory.

"I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Robert's just beaten John Higgins, I know him really well and he's a cracking player," said Lee.

Mark Allen made his way into the semi-finals with a comfortable 5-1 victory over Mark King.

The natural conditions in Haikou at this time of year are warm and humid and inside the arena that made cueing difficult . The Northern Irishman, though, adapted to compile breaks of 103, 100 and 71 on his way to victory.

King won a scrappy opener but after that it was all Allen as he got to grips with the conditions better than his opponent.

Sickness

"I'm happy with way I'm playing, I'm scoring quite well and if I keep playing the way I am, I'm confident that I can win. If I play well I expect to win regardless of who I play," said Allen.

In the other quarter-final, Mark Selby recorded a 5-0 victory over an out-of-sorts Shaun Murphy, who had suffered a bout of sickness before the match.

Again, the conditions played their part and Selby wore a glove on his left hand to assist his cueing. He opened with a century and went on from there as Murphy failed to get to grips with the atmosphere.

"Wearing the glove makes it a little bit easier to cue but the tables still play a lot different to those in the UK due to the humidity which is making it difficult," said Selby.