World Championship 2026: Defending champion Zhao Xintong fights back against Shaun Murphy
In the hard-fought opening of the quarter-final, Neil Robertson took a narrow 5-3 lead against John Higgins.
Higgins compiled breaks of 61 and 56 to take the first frame and draw the fourth frame at 2-2.
But the emotional and physical toll of defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan 13-12 in the all-time Crucible classic on Monday appeared to be a burden on the 50-year-old Scot’s shoulders at times.
The four-time champion made six unforced errors before reaching the mid-session interval and was far from his best in a closely contested affair.
Australian Robertson, who won the world title in 2010, also failed to reach the heights despite runs of 77 and 70 and even had to have his chair repaired at one point, adding to the protracted nature of the competition.
While taking the final two frames of the session, his pragmatic approach and unfortunate ball running contributed to the lengthening of the eighth frame, which lasted almost 52 minutes and delayed the start of the evening session.
Robertson and Higgins will be back on track at 10am BST on Wednesday.
In contrast, Hossein Vafaei and Wu Yize are level at 4-4 after an entertaining start to their best-of-25 encounter.
As both players appeared focused on snooker attack, Iran’s Vafaei made a break of 66 to take a 2-1 lead and Wu took a 4-2 lead with runs of 90, 56 and 56 to underline his status as one of the game’s emerging talents.
Having to win two heats before getting past Si Jiahui and then world number one Judd Trump in a final-frame thriller, Vafaei responded with a 71-point lead.
And Wu equalized when he failed to clear the table to the pink by hitting a stylish long black into the top left corner.
They return at 14:30 BST on Wednesday for the second session of their best-of-25 campaign.
