Ronnie O’Sullivan opened up a 10-6 lead on Ryan Day to move within three frames of another World Championship quarter-final appearance.
O’Sullivan, aiming for a record-breaking eighth Crucible success, built on a 5-3 first-session lead by making Day pay for a succession of missed chances.
A missed yellow from Day proved costly as O’Sullivan made an 82 clearance and, although the Welshman replied by winning a scruffy frame, the seven-time world champion did not have to get out of second gear to dominate.
‘The Rocket’ reached the break 8-4 ahead as Day’s carelessness was further punished with breaks of 65 and 89.
The pattern remained the same after the interval as O’Sullivan cashed in on Day mistakes with frame-winning breaks of 56 and 96.
But Day – who has not beaten O’Sullivan since 2011 – responded superbly with efforts of 77 and 75 and keep his faint hopes alive when the action resumes on Monday afternoon.
Kyren Wilson also takes a 10-6 lead over Joe O’Connor into the final session of their second-round match on Monday afternoon.
After Wilson had raced into a 6-2 lead, the second session was shared, with O’Connor taking the final frame with a 102 clearance.
Stephen Maguire secured his spot in the last eight by beating Shaun Murphy 13-9.
The pair have feuded for two decades following an incident where Maguire was penalised a frame for forgetting his chalk and the Scot held off a late fightback from Murphy to seal victory.
He resumed on Sunday morning with a 10-6 overnight lead and continued his quest to reach the quarter-finals with a break of 68 before Murphy pulled a frame back.
Maguire then moved within one frame of victory but Murphy continued to battle, a 67 break earning him the following frame before he took the first after the mid-session interval to trail by three.
However, Maguire sealed victory in style, hitting the only century of the match with a 127 to set up a meeting with David Gilbert.
Maguire told the World Snooker Tour website: “(Murphy) looked like he was comfortable in that session, so I was starting to get geared up for a comeback and a close finish. Once I got my chance, I finished pretty well there.
“Me and Dave (Gilbert) get on and we’ve grown up with each other for the best part of 30 years. He is a great player. He’s not had a great season by his standards. I’m probably the same, so we are coming into a good game at the right time.
“The quarter-finals are the pressure matches. I’ve won a couple and lost a couple. It is a match you don’t want to lose in because that arena changes and it does become the best in the world with the one table.”
During Saturday’s session Murphy fist-pumped after winning a frame and Maguire admitted it provided him some motivation.
“Shaun made a mistake. He knows me well enough and I get down on myself,” Maguire said.
“He won a frame I should’ve won and I was sitting there hating myself when the fist-pump came out and I thought, ‘you’re having it’ and all my attention went on that.
“It was satisfying beating a player as good as Shaun is in the last 16 of the World Championship.”
Mark Allen edged 9-7 ahead in his last-16 meeting with John Higgins in a tight encounter between the pair.
After an even start, back-to-back wins in the 11th and 12th frames put Higgins in front, but Allen then took control by winning the next four frames on the bounce – which included a 94 break – to lead by two.
Stuart Bingham fended off Jack Lisowski’s comeback to also take a 9-7 lead into Monday’s session.
Bingham extended his lead to 6-3 after taking the ninth frame, but Lisowski responded by taking the next three to claw his way back into contention.
However, Bingham finished strongly to take a two-frame advantage into the final session.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here