Ronnie O'Sullivan recovered from a sluggish start to share the spoils with Stuart Bingham at the end of the first session of their World Championship quarter-final.
O'Sullivan quickly found himself 2-0 down against the 2015 champion and it might have been three, had Bingham not pursued a 147 break only to suffer a counter-punch.
Bingham restored his lead with his fourth half-century in as many frames, but O'Sullivan returned from the mid-session interval with a break of 116 to kickstart his bid for a semi-final place.
After levelling at 3-3, O'Sullivan then won a drawn-out seventh frame to lead for the first time, but Bingham stopped the rot to level at 4-4.
On the adjacent table, Kyren Wilson produced some of the best snooker of the championship to lead a dogged John Higgins 5-3.
It would've been hard to argue that Higgins' emotional victory over Mark Allen had left a mark because he looked good when chances arrived, but Wilson was so impressive that they simply didn't during the first mini-session.
Breaks of 70, 95, 93 and 71 put Wilson 4-0 up before Higgins made an important break of 129, which Wilson responded to with a century of his own to restore his four-frame cushion.
Higgins knocked it a break of 73 to cut the gap once more and then won what could prove to be a massive eighth frame, getting out of the session just two behind.
In the evening, Stephen Maguire fought back from 8-1 behind to get within four of David Gilbert, who leads 10-6.
Jak Jones meanwhile couldn't get clear of Judd Trump having led 3-1 and 6-4, but in the end will have been pleased to sign off with a century to level at 8-8.
