John Virgo
1979 UK Championship winner

Mark Allen is in a bit of a hole here. They will resume tomorrow morning and it is a must-win session for Mark if he's going to get anything out of this match.

Chris Wakelin is almost halfway to the winning line at the end of the first session.

The qualifier needs a couple of bites of the cherry in frame eight but he gets the job done and he leads world number eight Mark Allen 6-2.

The magic number of frames needed to reach the quarter-finals is 13.

They will resume their second-round contest on Friday at 10:00 BST and then return for the evening session to complete the match.

Chris: Why did Ryan Day walk out? He was only five points behind even with the foul?

Junaid: Might be a silly question, how did Brecel win the frame without having to pot the black?

If there is a foul with only the cue ball and the black remaining on the table, that constitutes the end of the frame. As the seven penalty points put Luca Brecel in front, that meant he won the frame.

Dennis Taylor
1985 world champion on BBC Sport

Where's the cue ball going? No, not in the pocket.

That's the last thing Ryan Day thought would happen there.

What a way to lose a frame of snooker.

Luca Brecel didn't have to do anything. Now he needs just one frame to get through to the second round.

Image source, Getty Images

Chris Wakelin will definitely be in front at the end of the first session of his second-round match against Mark Allen - but will it be by two frames or four?

Frame eight will be the final frame of the session, with sessions two and three scheduled for Friday at 10:00 BST and 19:00 BST.

Brecel hits the front and leads 40-8 early on, but again Day has a big chance to get right back into the frame.

Surely Day has to seize the moment and he nudges one point ahead of Brecel before missing a red with the rest, perhaps distracted by applause coming from spectators watching the other table.

Still, Day gets another opportunity and extends his lead to 20 points before missing the green, which Brecel flukes with a long-range double that he surely was not planning. What drama.

Brecel adds the rest of the colours to the pink before the frame comes down to a safety tussle on the black, with two points the difference.

Day takes on a double - he's going all in.

But he misses, and instead the white drops in - oh no! Is his World Championship coming to a disappointing end?

Chris Wakelin has us all, including commentators Stephen Hendry and John Virgo, thinking about the possibility of a 147 break in the early stages of frame seven. Reds and blacks to start and the balls all in decent positions.

That prospect quickly disappears but Wakelin knocks in his fourth half-century of the match to take a 53-point lead.

As mentioned earlier, Chris Wakelin's first-round win over Neil Robertson was a first ever victory at the Crucible for one of the most improved players on tour over the past two or three years.

His only ranking event success came at the 2023 Shoot Out - a tournament comprised of one-frame matches played to a time limit.

Since then, the 33-year-old has reached finals at the Northern Ireland Open and the International Championship.

There's every chance he'll be back among the world's elite - ranked in the top 16 - at the end of this World Championship.

Stephen Hendry
Seven-time world champion

The blue was the obvious highlight and it's probably going to be the highlight of the whole afternoon session. It was a beautifully cued shot.

It looks like at the very least Chris is not going to be behind going into the second session of this match.

He wasn't the favourite coming into this against Mark, but he has the chance to have a lead [at the end of the session] with two frames to play.

He'll be delighted with the way this is going so far.

A long, straight blue into the top-left corner is the springboard for a 84 break by Chris Wakelin, which guarantees that the 33-year-old Englishman will be at least level at the end of this first session.

Image source, Getty Images

An early run of 46 gives Luca Brecel a strong start, but he is then fortunate to see Day miss a reasonably straightforward red.

That scuppers hopes of a fightback in this frame for the Welshman, but there's plenty of life left in this match.

Mark Allen makes a break of 31 on his return to the table and that is enough to secure his second frame of the afternoon.

Image source, Getty Images

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.