And now Selby misses an easy red!

Shaun Murphy will surely capitalise.

Murphy should take full advantage of that fluke and looks a cert to pinch the frame as he accumulates 52.

But he misses an absolutely routine red to the middle and Mark Selby is now favourite to take a rollercoaster final frame of the afternoon.

"It's the final, the pressure!" exclaims John Virgo on commentary.

Shaun Murphy produced a lovely little shot to pot the pink and nudge a red out of the way of the black.

He plays the next red in off another - to the gasps of the crowd who thought it was a lucky shot.

That wasn't BUT THE NEXT ONE IS! The pink hits the knuckle of the middle pocket and goes all the way along the cushion into the top corner.

What a fluke and what a time to get it.

Mark Selby has eschewed playing for the black a couple of times in this break so there's no chance of a 150 now or anything approaching that.

But all he'll be bothered about is squaring the scoreline.

Hang on a minute though, he's over-cut a tricky red on 46 and left it over the bag for Shaun Murphy...

John Virgo is getting really excited in the commentary box at the start of the eighth and final frame of this opening session.

A foul from Shaun Murphy leaves Mark Selby a free ball off the bat and JV is salivating over the possibility of a break higher than 147.

Selby takes a red and yellow which means a 150 is the maximum he could attain.

Shaun Murphy leads again.

He drops a delicious long red in.

The Jester lives up to his nickname by pretending to come back to the table needing umpteen snookers but he concedes.

No, we can't.

Commentator's curse, Murphy missed the next red after I typed.

Mark Selby needs a snooker but that won't disconcert him. He played on needing five the other night.

Murphy pots another red and Selby now requires four snookers but he again returns to the table.

Trouble is, with only 10 reds on those mini-tables, the highest break you can make is only 107. Not that I get anywhere close, mind you.

Wonder how these lads would do on those tables? They would probably clear up to be fair.

Speaking of which, Shaun Murphy has capitalised on that brilliant long red and already has Mark Selby at the snookers required stage.

Can we get the final's first century?

I imagine the image on the left is a familiar sight to frustrated club players like me these past few months.

Unable to pick up a proper cue since November, I've had to settle for my son's mini-table. Better than nothing!

I've gone proper snooker-loopy stir crazy though - how about this plasticine effort? My efforts to fashion a brown and pink out of other colours let me down a bit to be fair...

Image source, BBC Sport

This fantastic fortnight of snooker must have amateur players up and down the country foaming at the mouth about the prospect of picking up their cues again.

Just over two weeks until clubs can open on 17 May.

More safety early on in this frame and, again, Mark Selby is edging it.

But he misses a makeable cut on a red and Shaun Murphy bangs in a long one. A decent chance to reclaim the lead with most of the reds out in the open.

Toe-to-toe, blow for blow this opening session of the world final.

Judd Trump
World number one on BBC Two

Neither player has really found their feet just yet and it’s a really important couple of frames now as neither of them will want to be behind going into the next session tonight.

Only five players in history have four or more world titles to their name in the modern era - and Mark Selby will be hoping to increase that elite list to six come Monday evening.

It would be his fourth title in eight years after triumphs in 2014, 2016 and 2017 - not quite the levels of domination Ray Reardon, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry achieved in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s respectively but not far off.

Much is made of Ronnie O'Sullivan's chances of equalling Hendry's record tally of seven world titles but Selby is eight years younger than the Rocket.

Surely he has to be in that conversation should he lift a fourth title and draw level with John Higgins on the list?

Image source, BBC Sport

John Parrott
1991 world champion on BBC Two

It just looks like both players have had two really hard semi-finals and they have just dropped a couple of percentage points in their levels of performance from yesterday which is understandable.

They are not playing badly by any stretch of the imagination but they are just not absolutely tip-top either.

The three-time champion does exactly that, mopping up the remaining reds nicely until a poor miss - but he's too far ahead and we're tied again.

Shaun Murphy, however, fails to punish the mistake, missing the black off its spot after the easy red and Selby is back in prime position to level again.

Mark Selby has left himself in an interesting scenario after attempting to break into the pack.

The white has stuck on the reds, meaning Selby needs an extended swan-neck spider.

He can probably only half see the shot he's playing, trying to cut a red into the corner and, not surprisingly, he misses it.

With snooker clubs closed this past six months, have you wondered how professionals have been able to maintain their long hours of practice?

Well, wonder no longer.

I asked pro Mark Joyce, from my hometown of Walsall, and he told me elite sportspeople are still allowed to use their practice facilities, as long as all Covid-19 related rules are followed.

Some of the top pros have tables in their houses too. That's the dream eh?

Judd was right.

Murphy was always looking for a way out of that tactical battle and he pushes the boat out by going for two long reds in successive shots.

He gets away with missing the first but leaves an easy opening red for Mark Selby with the second.

World number one Judd Trump, commentating on BBC Two:

"It’s going to be interesting to see how Shaun plays this kind of frame because Mark Selby kind of took the reins against Stuart Bingham and controlled the pace of the game.

"Shaun is not going to want to be getting into these long safety battles.

"He will want to open the balls up early – Shaun is scoring so well that he would just like to get on with the game and not get too bogged down in these safety battles, because Mark is probably the best in the world at that type of game."