Neil Robertson and Barry Hawkins all square in World Championship clash

The session kicked off with the same tempo as it would proceed for the rest of the night when the two players exchanged a lengthy series of safety plays, before Robertson managed to hit a 132 break to move 6-3 ahead.

Robertson then had to watch as Hawkins made a break of 95 to continue the exceptional quality seen in the match and across the tournament so far, and Hawkins moved to 6-5 when he forced Wilson into requiring several snookers to rescue the 11th frame - Wilson failed when he fluke a red and reduced his options.

After more than half an hour, the 12th frame stood at 30-39 in Hawkins’ favour, with the game plodding on slowly, and more safety play saw Wilson fail to keep up with his rival to leave the score at 6-6 going into the mid-session interval.

A scrappy frame gave Hawkins a rare moment ahead, but a poor miscue in the next frame on a tight red allowed Wilson back in to steal a leveller with two frames remaining.

At half 10, the two were still at the table with a couple of frames to play. In the night's penultimate frame, a break of 69 was enough to settle the matter before one last frame began.

Nothing could separate the pair at the end of the session though, when a 117 break levelled the scores at 88.

On the other table Wilson faced off against Gould, and quickly went 6-3 ahead, and turned that into a 7-3 advantage when he put away 83.

It seemed that Wilson was going to wrap the match up early when he managed to reach 9-3, but the resurgent Gould gave himself a glimmer of hope at 10-5, only to see the session brought to a close with Wilson 11-5 up, two frames from the next round.