John Higgins and Matthew Stevens are heading for a final session shoot-out to decide their gripping Embassy World Championship semi-final in Sheffield.
The pair are serving up the best match of the championship in terms of sheer quality and are still unseparable at 10-10 after sharing the first four frames of the third session this morning.
The first player to reach the 17-frame mark will clinch their place in tomorrow’s showpiece but there are likely to be many more twists and turns before the winner is decided on the evidence so far.
Higgins was first among the balls in the opening frame but it proved costly when he was guilty of a double hit on the cue ball when potting a brown.
Stevens stepped in with a 54 break and then, went he returned to the table, fluked a red off the black to help him clinch the frame.
The world number six then snookered Higgins behind the brown in the next and he was left with an easy red after his attempted escape which set him on the way to his 10th 50-plus break of the match.
That gave Stevens his fourth frame in a row after he had come from 8-6 down to win the final two of Friday evening's session.
The high quality which has been apparent throughout the match continued in frame 20 when Higgins hit back with a 121 clearance to the final blue to halve his deficit. It was the Scot's eight century of the tournament.
Then the Wizard of Wishaw came out on top with the aid of a final run of 29 in the last frame before the interval to draw level. The winners of this gripping contest look certain to have to face Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final.
O’Sullivan, who has lost three previous semi-finals, will require only two more frames when he resumes today 15-9 ahead against Joe Swail.
Swail has been renowned for comebacks in this tournament against Sean Storey, Mark Williams and Patrick Wallace but it will be astonishing if he pulls back from his current predicament.
O'Sullivan has been in some of the most inspired and consistent form of his career during the past fortnight and has shown precious few signs of relinquishing his grip over opponents.