We have reached the mid-session interval on table one and Mark Allen will be feeling a little bit better about his game as he won the final frame of the first session 62-7.

Still, Scott Donaldson is by far the happier of the two as he leads 3-1.

On table two, Gary Wilson is 3-2 up against Zhang Anda, who has just missed what could be a costly pink off its spot.

Hi Rob, apart from the usual waistcoats, bow ties, trousers and shoes for the Triple Crown events, black shirts aren't mandatory. Xiao Guodong wore a white shirt on Sunday evening and both Shaun Murphy and John Higgins did likewise on Saturday.

It took an age to drop, but drop it did...

Snooker fans young and old are always welcome in this page.

You won't get many younger snooker fans than this two-year-old, who has been a big hit on social media after his dad filmed him potting some balls.

Watch how the youngster then got to act like a pro, with his walk on into the arena as he gets greeted by a loud round of applause.

The third frame on table one took an hour, but it has gone Scott Donaldson's way to leave the Scot, ranked 52nd in the world and in his first match at the main stage of the UK Championship since 2021, 3-0 ahead.

Mark Allen has now not potted a ball in half an hour and the former world number one will need to do something special to turn this around.

But don't write him off just yet.

This was a clip from early today as Zhao Xintong made a century in his first frame of this year's UK Championship.

Michael Emons
BBC Sport at York Barbican

Image source, Getty Images

When Zhao Xintong became China's first world snooker champion, life changed irreversibly for him - and the sport in his homeland.

Zhao, 28, made snooker history in May when he completed an incredible nine-match winning run from the opening qualifying round all the way to the final, beating Mark Williams 18-12 at the Crucible in Sheffield to achieve the sport's ultimate glory.

"I'm trying to learn and now being world champion is very different, you need to do more things," said Zhao after his 6-1 win on Monday over compatriot Long Zehuang in the opening round of the UK Championship.

"There's a lot of pressure and that's a big problem for me so I'm learning how to enjoy the table and when I win any match, I'm just very happy.

"This is my first time to be famous and I'm very busy. I don't have time to practise but now I'm trying to get the balance and trying to get better. I'm not sure this is all real!

"It is a big difference now when I go back to China. Everybody knows about me and when I was at the airport everyone takes pictures. I'm definitely more nervous [when playing] and I'm starting to learn how to play under big pressure."

• Read more of our feature on how life has changed for Zhao since his Crucible success

It has been quite rapid progress on table two and we have reached the mid-session interval with it being 2-2 in the match between England's Gary Wilson and China's Zhang Anda.

A break of 58 helped Wilson to the opener, runs of 87 and 73 gave Zhang the lead, before 15th seed Wilson took the fourth frame by a margin of 88-23.

Meanwhile on table one, the third frame has just gone past the 40-minute mark with three reds still on the table and Scott Donaldson 41-40 ahead and 2-0 up against Mark Allen.

Are we going to see a shock or two tonight? Only one of the nine seeds to have played so far has gone out, but eighth seed Mark Allen finds himself 2-0 down to Scott Donaldson, while 15th seed Gary Wilson is 2-1 behind against Zhang Anda.

This fan certainly got into the snooker spirit, as you may have seen on TV during the player intros...

Image source, BBC Sport

We are two frames down on table two as England's Gary Wilson took the opener, helped with a break of 58, before Zhang levelled thanks to a run of 87.

Zhang will have happy memories of this arena as he made a 147 during last year's competition.

We want to hear your thoughts. Who do you want / expect to win the 2025 UK Championship and why?

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It was an emotional walk on for Scott Donaldson earlier on as he made his way to the table.

The Scot then performed superbly in the opening frame as a break of 62 helped him to an early lead.

An emotional Scott Donaldson produced an incredible comeback in the final round of qualifying as he fought back from 5-0 down to beat former world champion Stuart Bingham 6-5.

Donaldson, whose father Hector died aged 70 on 2 October, was messaging his wife about driving home when he was 4-0 down against the 2015 world champion in Wigan last week.

Bingham had knocked in breaks of 71 and 117 on the way to moving one frame away from victory and a place in the main tournament. However, Donaldson produced a stirring comeback to stun his rival as the Scotsman made breaks of 56 and 64 before a 110.

He then added breaks of 51, 91 and 64 to complete victory and book a spot at the UK Championship, which starts at the York Barbican on Saturday.

"I played the Scottish Open qualifiers two days after his [Hector] funeral - that was impossible," Donaldson told BBC Radio 5 Live. "I went to Belfast for which he'd already booked his flights and hotel as he was coming to watch me [at the Northern Ireland Open].

"That was incredibly hard - I was just in my seat welling up. I don't know how I managed to get three frames off Wu Yize [in a 4-3 defeat].

"Since then I've kind of been OK because I know he would always want me to just do my stuff. He loved watching me play. In my mind, he's still there watching me play."

We are under way with the evening session and this is what is going on...

Table one - Mark Allen (NI) v Scott Donaldson (Sco)

Table two - Zhang Anda (Chn) v Gary Wilson (Eng)

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Click the 'Contact form' to the left of the page and we will post the best messages in this page throughout the day.

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