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Former champion Luca Brecel completed a fightback from 5-1 down to beat Ryan Day 10-7 and reach the last 16 of the 2025 World Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield.
Belgium's Brecel won the last three frames of Wednesday's first session to trim his early arrears to 5-4, only for Welshman Day, ranked 36th in the world, to make a break of 101 in the opening frame on Thursday and move two clear.
But 2023 world champion Brecel took six of the next seven frames in a scrappy encounter that featured both players making unexpected errors.
One of those mistakes from Day proved crucial when he potted the cue ball when on the black to hand Brecel the 16th frame.
Brecel will face 10th seed Ding Junhui in the next round, with the match starting on Saturday evening before the second session on Sunday and the conclusion on Monday.
Now aged 30, Brecel made his debut at the World Championship as a 17-year-old in 2012. Before his trophy success two years ago, however, he had not won a match at the sport's most famous venue.
An epic run to glory saw him defeat Ricky Walden, Mark Williams, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Si Jiahui and finally Mark Selby 18-15 in the final to become the first world champion from mainland Europe.
The 'Crucible Curse' - often cited for no first-time winner repeating their success the following year - then struck again in 2024 when Brecel suffered a first-day opening-round loss to David Gilbert.
Day, 45, said he had no plans to quit the sport but was frustrated with his efforts.
The three-time Crucible quarter-finalist said: "Even with a 5-1 lead I was looking over my shoulder and not looking forward. I'm just not over-confident and I'm definitely not the player I once was.
"I turn up and play and try. I've been doing it a long time so it's obviously a lot closer to the end than the beginning. I would've beaten myself up the way I played if that had been a couple of years ago, but I've come to terms with it.
"I still like competing, I just haven't got the game that I had. As long as I'm on the tour I will still play and make a living out of it. I need to try to do something different [in matches] but I can't see my game really improving much."
The first of the last-16 matches began on Thursday afternoon, with two-time semi-finalist Mark Allen falling four frames behind against English qualifier Chris Wakelin.
Wakelin, who defeated 2010 world champion Neil Robertson in round one, secured a 6-2 lead in the best-of-25-frame contest.
Breaks of 56 and 69 helped Wakelin go 2-0 ahead, before a run of 100 from Allen pulled one back for the Northern Ireland player.
Wakelin ended the session strongly by taking the final three frames, with that match resuming on Friday morning at 10:00 BST and then concluding in the evening session.
