Mark Allen is 31 points up in the fifth frame but finds himself in a bit of bother behind the black and only able to see one red.

The man from Northern Ireland plays a stunning safety to get back in behind the black himself and leave Chris Wakelin snookered on all reds.

The replay of Wakelin's second attempt appears to show he might have just grazed a red... but referee Tatiana Woollaston was standing right over it and calls a foul.

Wakelin is up to six fouls trying to escape this snooker now... and the seventh attempt smacks into the blue, leaving Allen a glorious chance to wrap up the frame.

John Parrott
1991 world champion on BBC Sport

When both players are missing, it still makes it very exciting as a game.

This has not been of the highest order, let's be honest, but it's fascinating nonetheless because we dont know what's going to happen.

It'll be a mightily relieved Ryan Day. He must have feared the worst when he left Luca Brecel in.

Ryan Day brings us back level, making it a best-of-five finish.

He breaks down on 62 when almost over the line, and although Luca Brecel springs from his seat he cannot capitalise on the unexpected chance. It's tense out there.

Day slots in 64, looks like he was enjoying it. Now who will hold their nerve?

Ding Junhui, the World Championship runner-up nine years ago, is waiting in round two for Luca Brecel or Ryan Day.

If it is to be Brecel, then the Belgian will be facing someone he has struggled against in the past.

Ding won their first eight encounters, according to the Cuetracker database, but Brecel halted that run this season when he beat China's long-time leading light 4-3 at the Scottish Open in December.

First-round matches are played over two sessions and are the best of 19 frames - first to 10 wins. The first session contains nine frames, with a possible 10 to be played in the concluding session.

In the second round, it is the best of 25 frames with three sessions - split into eight, eight and nine.

However, we are now into the territory where really convincing wins can be achieved without the need for a final session. It doesn't happen too often but, when it does, it can give the victorious player a handy period of rest during this 17-day snooker marathon.

John Parrott
1991 world champion on BBC Sport

A frame that had its tos and fros. Ryan Day you have to say had a couple of really good chances and messed up positionally and Luca Brecel is going to nick this and pop his nose in front at 7-6.

It's had a little bit of everything and I have no idea which way this is going.

Luca Brecel leads for the first time as they head away for an interval cuppa.

Ryan Day led 41-37 as a tactical battle began on the colours and swiftly laid a snooker for his opponent, whose smash-and-hope strategy worked out at the second attempt.

Brecel then tied up Day in a dastardly snooker of his own, with the yellow cosying up to the black by a corner pocket and the cue ball behind the green, deep in baulk.

A swerve shot almost got Day out of jail, but he clipped the black and Brecel cleared up.

Mark Allen looks in a decent position to level the match, but the penultimate red proves to be his undoing.

The left-hander requires the extension on his cue for a mid-distance pot attempt, which rattles in the jaws.

Chris Wakelin steps in and clears the table to take a 3-1 lead back to his dressing room.

And Mark Allen gets over the line in frame three with a break of exactly 100, reducing his gap to one.

It's century number 663 of Allen's career.

Even at this early stage in the match, it's an important frame coming up before the mid-session interval.

John Virgo
1979 UK Championship winner

Just signs in this third frame that Mark Allen is starting to get through the ball a bit better.

A couple of seasons ago, he really slowed his game down and I think even he felt he was getting too pedestrian. Then he tried to quicken up again but it's not a light switch.

Allen's first break in the third frame ended on 24, but he's back at the table now with a 40-point lead and 75 remaining - and a successful double on a red puts him on the brink of getting a frame on the scoreboard.

These two are level for the first time since the very early stages of the match. Luca Brecel is playing the occasional inexplicable shot, but such is the way of a maverick.

Ryan Day's 5-1 lead from yesterday has been reeled in by the player who made his Crucible debut as a 17-year-old some 13 years ago.

A fluked yellow helped him cross the line in this one. From behind the black, with the yellow near the blue spot, Brecel gave the cue ball a whack off the cushion. It struck the yellow and sent it veering up into the green pocket, and another fluke followed on the brown. Some guys get all the luck.

Referee Jan Verhaas had briefly muddled the score in the early stages of the frame, prompting a smile from Brecel and leading Dennis Taylor to remark: "Even the greatest make mistakes."

A break of 69 earns Chris Wakelin the second frame and puts the world number 20 into a 2-0 lead.

Just the start he would have wanted.

Image source, Getty Images

It was not a frame that will live too long in the memory, except for the red that referee Jan Verhaas had to lean down to pick off the Crucible carpet.

Brecel wins it comfortably enough though and we're back to a one-frame gap. Could this be nip and tuck all the way this afternoon?

Image source, PA Media

Chris Wakelin delivered one of the surprises of the first round, holding off a second-session fightback from former world champion Neil Robertson to win 10-8.

That was his first ever win at the Crucible, having failed to win a match on his three previous visits.

Wakelin had a spell in the world's top 16 earlier this season and began the World Championship at number 20 in the rankings.

Taking that lengthy opening frame will maybe settle any early nerves he might have felt, as will potting a long red left from Mark Allen's break-off in frame two.

One of the shots of the World Championship so far by Chris Wakelin!

What a sensational pot on the blue into the left middle, from tight on the top cushion, sending the cue ball around the angles to land inch perfect on the pink.

The pink drops too and Wakelin takes the opening frame.

In the best-of-25 second-round match between Mark Allen and Chris Wakelin, the opening frame is likely to be settled by the ongoing tactical exchange on the blue.

"Whoever wins it, the one that loses it will feel a little aggrieved because they've both had chances," says John Virgo on commentary.

John: Out of interest is there a reason why the second round begins before the first had finished? Logically things would be shuffled and there would be the last two matches playing to a finish now?

That's a good question, John. After a quick chat among our team, we think it is so that one match finishes in each session, and also so you are guaranteed to have a full session on at least one side of the arena.

Otherwise, you could have the scenario where two first-round matches finish with just a couple of frames played this afternoon and those who have paid for tickets won't quite have got their money's worth.

With the number of sessions and tables available, it's not possible to get the first round completed by Wednesday.

The table became an awful mess at the start of frame 11, and Belgian 'Bullet' Brecel figured he would go for power to blast a red and try to gain position on a colour.

A bunch of reds were crowded around a corner pocket, and the explosive nature of Brecel's shot resulted in the red bouncing up, along the rail towards the opposite pocket and on to the floor, to gasps from the crowd.

It cost him a four-point foul, with Day unable to take advantage of the handy chance he was left with.

What an assured start from Ryan Day. The 45-year-old made his debut at the World Championship in 2004 and has reached the quarter-finals three times, so he is no stranger to Crucible pressure.

The manner of his 101 break in the opening frame of the afternoon - keeping Brecel in his seat - gives him the cushion he would have been hoping for just 15 minutes or so ago.

Brecel might have had the momentum after his surge in the closing frames yesterday, but Welshman Day is now just four frames away from round two.

"A great start, just how you want to start the session," says BBC pundit and former world champion John Parrott.

Mark Allen opens up with a break of 32 but position was starting to run out as the break progressed and a miss on the pink gives Chris Wakelin his first chance among the balls.