A break of 47 in last night's final frame spared Steve Davis the humiliation of losing his World Championship quarter-final against Shaun Murphy inside two sessions.
But it still looks like the six-time winner of the title in the 1980s will suffer an emphatic defeat this afternoon as he trails 12-4, with his 22-year-old opponent needing only one more frame for victory.
The writing was on the wall for Davis as soon as the match began as Murphy, so impressive in his 13-8 win over John Higgins on Monday, continued his terrific break-building.
Murphy raced 7-1 clear helped by contributions of 82, 72 and 58 twice, with Davis so frustrated by his own form he even conceded one frame when there were enough points available to win it.
Last night's session was scrappy and error-strewn, with Davis clearly out of sorts and Murphy looking edgy for the first time as the winning line drew near but Davis managed to bring the match to a second day.
Stephen Hendry kicked off with a century last night, a 138 as he turned a 5-3 deficit against Matthew Stevens into a 7-5 lead before the Welshman hit back to tie the contest at 8-8.
The seven-time former champion had been poor in the morning's action but took six consecutive frames spread over the two sessions and an exciting conclusion looks in prospect.
Earlier, Peter Ebdon could only sit and watch a Ronnie O'Sullivan masterclass - and admitted he was privileged to be sharing a table with the defending champion. O'Sullivan seized control of their quarter-final from the outset, ending the first session with a 6-2 lead after an awesome display of break-building.
A fluked red set in motion a frame-winning 71 in the opener, but that was the only stroke of luck involved as the world number one added further contributions of 137, 101, 79 and 71 to build a healthy advantage.
Even though O'Sullivan continually talks of retiring in a year or two because he is not happy with his game, performances like this put him on a different level to all his rivals.
In the other quarter-final Alan McManus doubled a respotted black to move 5-3 ahead of Ian McCulloch having won five on the spin from 3-0 down.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: Quarter-finals: (1) Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) leads (8) Peter Ebdon (Engl) 6-2 (O'Sullivan first: 79-1 137-0 63-68 101-0 98-0 86-8 48-71 110-14); Shaun Murphy (Eng) leads (13) Steve Davis (Eng) 12-4 (Murphy first: 72-5 47-43 62-73 73-51 82-1 51-28 107-4 70-66 7-111 67-5 74-30 92-30 31-86 121-4 60-54 18-64); (3) Stephen Hendry (Scot) level with (6) Matthew Stevens (Wal) 8-8 (Hendry first: 31-70 8-74 4-63 84-7 0-114 41-70 71-40 77-18 138-0 86-54 114-20 68-21 5-78 0-75 81-32 21-68); (10) Alan McManus (Scot) leads Ian McCulloch (Eng) 5-3 (McManus first: 31-101 0-125 0-119 64-24 67-13 72-29 66-42 66-59).
