A key shot coming up for Mark Allen - with no more loose reds to go at, he has to go into the cluster of reds off the blue.

It's not the best shot, but he's on a red to the corner and he's a couple of pots away from a 12-11 lead.

No points scored yet in the 23rd frame - until Mark Allen picks out a double on a red and gets off the mark.

A tricky black along the top cushion is also sunk by the former Masters and UK champion, followed by a brilliant long red.

Can he pot the green and develop a few reds in the process? Yes he can...

Steven Hallworth
Snooker commentator on BBC iPlayer

There's very little to separate these two players, they're very evenly matched and the scoreline is illustrating that.

Who is going to crack first?

Barry Hawkins will not go away. A break of 43 gets him past the winning post in the 22nd frame.

There haven't quite been the fireworks of last night's session, when these two were knocking in frame-winning breaks for fun, but you can be sure there will be drama ahead in the next hour or so.

It's effectively a best-of-three match now.

John Higgins starts the 14th frame with a superb long red floated into the corner.

He's left with a very thin cut on the black and it just has enough legs to drop.

Barry Hawkins ran out of position pretty soon after that split of the reds, but he has a 24-point lead in frame 22.

Neil Robertson needed a couple of bites at the cherry but a break of 60 is enough to put him 7-6 in front against John Higgins.

That's just the start that Robertson would have wanted, having lost three frames in a row before the mid-session interval.

Mark Allen narrowly misses a long red and gives Barry Hawkins the first big chance of the frame.

Hawkins smacks into the pack to scatter the reds early on and somehow doesn't land on anything easy.

A tricky red just drops and he's got a great opportunity now to make a frame-winning break, although the black is tied up and unavailable at this stage.

A red and pink from Mark Allen leave Barry Hawkins needing a snooker, and another red makes absolutely sure he'll win the frame.

Allen two frames away from the semi-finals now.

Mark Allen has a 48-point lead at the end of his latest visit to the table, but there are still 67 available.

Mark Allen is looking favourite to go back into the lead against Barry Hawkins.

The advantage is 36 points and counting, with plenty of reds left. He'll need to go into the bunch at some point but he's picking off the loose ones for now and building a healthy advantage.

Higgins is part of snooker's "Class of 92" along with Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Williams - three of the sport's greats all turned professional in that year and they have since won 14 world titles between them.

They share that moniker with the crop of young players that propelled Manchester United to numerous trophy wins during the 1990s and 2000s.

Image source, PA Media

Meanwhile, Barry Hawkins and Mark Allen are back from their interval, with both requiring three more frames to become the first confirmed semi-finalist at this year's World Championship.

Steve Sutcliffe
BBC Sport at the Crucible Theatre

That is century number 1,065 of John Higgins' career. Only Ronnie O'Sullivan (1,330) and Judd Trump (1,150) have hit more breaks of 100 or more than the four-time world champion.

That's much more like it from John Higgins, who has gone through the gears in the past couple of frames.

He makes the first century break of the match - a 126 - to level the quarter-final at 6-6.

Neil Robertson, who won a lengthy opening frame of the session, has some thinking to do during the mid-session interval having lost the past three frames in a row.

Dennis Taylor
1985 world champion on BBC iPlayer

This is exactly what John did against Ronnie O'Sullivan when he was behind - he flicked a switch and, all of a sudden, he started playing some superb snooker.

It looks like he's going to do it again here.

Higgins up to a break of 52 now.

Steve Sutcliffe
BBC Sport at the Crucible Theatre

Image source, PA Media

Is John Higgins making his move?

This is very much the moving session of his match against Neil Robertson and there are signs that the four-time world champion is warming to his task.

He looked a little jaded on Tuesday, with perhaps a slight hangover from his epic victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan, but he has looked in fine touch so far this morning and put together back-to-back frames - with breaks of 51 and 86 - for the first time in the match.

Higgins is at the table again with a great chance to make it three in a row...

Joe Perry
Former World Championship semi-finalist on BBC iPlayer

This is an important frame for Neil Robertson.

He's still ahead in the match but John Higgins looks like he's about to produce some good, telling snooker and Neil is struggling to get going.

It's not the free-flowing, heavy scoring that we're used to seeing from him.