Ronnie O’Sullivan relished the prospect of a “massive, dirty curry” after grinding out a 6-3 win over Barry Hawkins in a Masters quarter-final that lacked spice.

The seven-times winner looked under the weather as he wore a thick coat for his post-match TV interview, muttering: “I fancy a curry – a massive, dirty curry. There’s nothing I don’t like.”

In a match awash with errors from both players, O’Sullivan kicked off with a break of 88 but had to wait until the penultimate frame to post his next half-century, a 60 to move one frame from victory.

Despite riding his luck early on, Hawkins will seldom have a better chance of improving his dismal record against O’Sullivan, having lost 17 of their previous 20 clashes, including a 10-1 thrashing in the 2016 Masters final.

Hawkins, an impressive winner of Neil Robertson in the last 16, could have been 4-0 down at the interval but instead went in all-square after being handed a series of uncharacteristic chances by the world number one.

A missed pink in the second allowed Hawkins to level, and Hawkins was not punished for a rash, missed yellow in the fourth as he somehow made it 2-2 at the interval.

A missed blue, among a number of others, from O’Sullivan gave Hawkins the chance to nudge ahead for the first time at 3-2, but Hawkins failed to take a series of opportunities to establish a two-frame lead.

A horrendous miscue from O’Sullivan, in which he missed the pink completely, was greeted with a sigh of exasperation but Hawkins missed the same ball at a stretch with the spider to let the favourite back in.

Worse was to follow from both players with O’Sullivan emerging on top after a catalogue of errors in frame seven, before wrapping things up to book a last-four clash with Shaun Murphy, who later beat Jack Lisowski.

O’Sullivan said he had been “lucky to get through” to what will be his 15th appearance in the semi-finals of the Masters.

“I felt bad for Barry, I just dragged him down to my level. It’s a funny old game,” O’Sullivan told BBC Sport.

“I didn’t feel any pressure at all to be honest, maybe that’s why I played like I did. I think you need that pressure sometimes to get you motivated.

“That’s the most awful standard of snooker. I just said to Barry at the end: ‘Sorry mate.’

“I’ve just got this ability with certain players where if I play bad, then they play even worse.

STELLAR SHAUN!!

Murphy advances to the semi-finals with a 6-3 victory over Jack Lisowski with breaks of 75, 131, 76 and 123!#TheMasters | @MrQBingo

— WST (@WeAreWST) January 11, 2024

“Some of the other guys will punish me, but I’ve just had it all through my life.

“Like everybody else in this country I’ve had a cold for about four weeks now. Lost my hearing as well when I was in China, I’ve not been too well, but I think everybody has been like that.”

Thursday’s evening session saw Murphy hold off a fightback from Lisowski to prevail 6-3.

A fine clearance of 133, doubling the final black, helped Murphy lead 3-1 at the interval, before he produced another well-crafted 123 break after the restart.

Lisowski reduced the deficit to 5-3 but ran out of position off the pink in the ninth frame and Murphy held his nerve.