Allen holds advantage against Day

World Snooker Championship
Date: 18 April-4 May Venue: Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
Coverage: Live coverage each day on BBC Two, BBC Red Button and BBC Sport website (UK only), updates on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Allen surveys a shot in Tuesday's opening session against Day

Mark Allen will take a 9-7 lead into Wednesday's closing session of his World Championship quarter-final against Welshman Ryan Day.

The Northern Irishman led 5-3 after the opening session but after extending his advantage, Allen then lost four straight frames as Day moved 7-6 up.

However, Allen levelled with a break of 119 and he pinched the 15th frame on the black after Day had led by 54.

Allen produced a break of 64 to win the last frame of the evening session.

The Antrim man started the evening impressively by moving 6-3 up after a break of 84.

However, Day produced a run of 68 to win the 10th frame and Allen missed a simple red in frame 11 which allowed the Welshman to produce a winning break of 69.

Day won frame 12 to level the match and a break of 70 put him ahead at 7-6 as Allen endured something of a crisis.

However, Allen potted a superb red to a centre pocket while in apparent trouble to set up a frame-winning break of 119 in the 14th.

606: DEBATE

Allen controlled the white ball better after the mid-session interval

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Day seemed set to move ahead again but he missed a mid-range blue while on a break of 54 and Allen won the frame on the black after two scoring visits.

After some scrappy initial exchanges in the last frame of the day, Allen produced a frame-winning break of 64.

Earlier, Allen had trailed 3-2 but breaks of 103 and 80 helped him move into a two-frame lead by the end of the first session.

Speaking after the morning session, the Antrim man also expressed delight at the news that the World Championship is to remain at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield until at least 2014.

"It's brilliant. There's a lot of history attached to the Crucible and Sheffield is known as a snooker city.

"To take it away from here would have been disappointing."