John Higgins and Mark Allen are locked at 4-4 after the first session of their first-round encounter at the 2024 Tour Championship in Manchester.
The eight frames featured moments of quality as both players battled to get the upper hand in the best-of-19 frame clash and put themselves in pole position to book a quarter-final showdown with Ding Junhui.
Allen took the opener with a break of 69 before Higgins, who secured the 12th and final spot in the tournament, responded with breaks of 85 and 75 to move ahead. Higgins then came through a scrappy fourth to lead 3-1 at the interval.
Higgins maintained his momentum when play resumed. After calling a foul on himself he nailed two plants in a break of 66 that eventually helped him over the line following Allen’s failed attempt to get a snooker.
Allen struggled for his usual fluency and that was evident again in the sixth frame. A good long red got him among the balls, but his cue ball control was ragged.
Nevertheless, his grittiness shone through as he potted his way out of trouble to keep the break going before making his 40th century of the season and first of the match.
More importantly, that contribution stopped the rot and reduced his deficit to two frames at 4-2.
The Northern Irishman capitalised on the swing in momentum, winning a marathon 56-minute frame to further close the gap with Higgins, before drawing level by taking the final frame.
On the other table, Gary Wilson was in sublime form as he opened up a 5-3 lead over Mark Selby.
Wilson made breaks of 95, 98, 78 and 101 to put himself in the ascendency against the four-time world champion, with a place in the quarter-finals to play Zhang Anda up for grabs.
It was Selby who made the better start. The Jester from Leicester won two of the first three frames, which included a break of 85, to lead 2-1 in the all-English clash.
From there, though, he was second best. Wilson made it 1-1 with a break of 95 and then reeled off four frames in a row from 2-1 down to take control.
Crucially, he won a scrappy fifth frame after the break to move 3-2 ahead before breaks of 78 and 101 helped him extend his cushion.
He may yet rue a missed opportunity to take a 6-2 advantage into tomorrow’s session, though.
After Selby got in first and missed a chance he would have been fearing the worst, but he was given a reprieve and took it to trail by just two frames.
Allen and Higgins will play to a finish on Monday evening while Tom Ford and Mark Williams will play the first session of their match.