Stephen Hendry will battle it out with defending champion Shaun Murphy on Friday for a Malta Cup semi-final spot after drawing 3-3 with Stephen Maguire.
The Scot won the three frames he needed against fellow countryman Maguire to force a deciding Group Three match.
Elsewhere, Masters champion Mark Selby, who failed to qualify for the last four, eased to an impressive quickfire win over local favourite Tony Drago.
The Leicester cueman pocketed breaks of 76, 43, 110 and 101 in a 4-2 win.
Maltese professional Drago had breaks of 57 and 43 in the sixth frame, but by then the damage had been done as Selby triumphed in a staggeringly quick 58 minutes.
The going was not as easy for Hendry, but the veteran did at least extend his unbeaten run to three matches on day four of the £76,000 tournament.
"I know I've got to beat Shaun to get through, but I was pretty happy with the way I played," said Hendry, who only made one break of note - 65 - compared to Maguire's runs of 67, 63 and 71.
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Hendry will need to beat Murphy in Friday's final best-of-six round-robin match, while a draw would be good enough for Murphy.
Murphy added: "I beat him (Stephen) in Belfast, so I've got good memories from that match.
"Whatever the permutations are of our group situation, I'll be looking to get to four frames ahead of him and then hopefully looking forward to being here at the weekend."
Also on Friday, Neil Robertson and Ken Doherty will lock horns for a place in the semi-finals after Australian Robertson beat Ulsterman Joe Swail 4-2.
Robertson needs a win, while a draw will be good enough for Doherty, with the victor set to play either world champion John Higgins or Joe Perry, the only players who can now qualify from Group one.
In the other match in Group Two, Hong Kong's Marco Fu impressed in a 5-1 victory over last month's Masters finalist Stephen Lee.
However, last year's runner-up Ryan Day cannot qualify for the semi-finals after a surprise 3-3 draw with Maltese wildcard Alex Borg.
Meanwhile, in Group Four, Mark Williams and Peter Ebdon drew 3-3 to rule themselves out of the running for a last four spot.
Ding Junhui beat Dominic Dale 4-2 to put himself in pole position to qualify, the Chinaman leading Welshman Dale by six points to five with one match left to play.
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