NEIL ROBERTSON and Mark Selby will resume the final session of their Dafabet World Championship level at 12-12 after an epic third session at the Crucible on Saturday.
Selby was leading 9-7 overnight but Robertson won a tough, attritional but high quality session to leave the match tied going into the evening.
There was a fluent start to the morning as Selby won the opener with a run of 104 and Robertson claimed the second with one of 85. But some long safety exchanges followed, with the third frame of the day lasting 51 minutes and the fourth 44.
The players entered the interval level at 10-10 – the match all square for the first time since it was 5-5 – before Selby’s 73 gave him the next.
Selby, runner-up in the 2007 World Championship, also won frame 22 but Robertson launched a fine rearguard action, winning the last two frames to make the evening session a best of nine.
Robertson is aiming to reach the world final for the second time in his career, having won the title in 2010.
Ronnie O’Sullivan is waiting in the final, having beaten Barry Hawkins 17-7 with a session to spare on Friday night.
Photographs by Monique Limbos.