Still lots of action to come this morning, but this is what's on the agenda for the rest of the day:

14:30

• Zhao Xintong 8-8 Shaun Murphy*
• Wu Yize 4-4 Hossein Vafaei

19:00

• Neil Robertson v John Higgins*
• Wu Yize v Hossein Vafaei*

A break of 86 from John Higgins - the highest break of the quarter-final so far - moves the Scot back within one frame of Neil Robertson at 6-5.

All square at the mid-session interval, as Barry Hawkins wins successive frames to fight back from 10-8 behind.

He got a massive slice of luck during a break of 83 in frame 20, but the rest of the break was compiled very, very well.

When the players return in about 15 minutes, it'll essentially be a best-of-five match for a place in the World Championship semi-final.

Wow - what a fluke for Barry Hawkins.

He misses a red to the corner, but the cue ball flicks the pack of reds and nudges another red into the other corner pocket.

A couple of pots later, he's 44 points up and looking favourite to level the match.

Steven Hallworth
Snooker commentator on BBC iPlayer

This bottom half of the draw has opened up - the winner of this match will play the winner of Wu Yize v Hossein Vafaei.

All four players will strongly believe they've got a serious chance to make a World Championship final.

From the standard we saw in the second session yesterday, I don't think they were thinking about it. Perhaps this morning, maybe they are starting to allow themselves to think of the opportunity that is ahead.

Barry Hawkins has a poke at a long red and strikes it well, but the red wobbles in the jaws of the corner pocket and away up the table.

Mark Allen has an easy red to the middle but lands straight on the blue and, in potting that, screws the cue ball straight back into the opposite middle pocket.

I fancy he was trying to hit the jaw and rebound back to the top end of the table, but he slightly misjudged it.

Steven Hallworth
Snooker commentator on BBC iPlayer

This is such an important juncture of this match. If Barry can take this frame and take us to the final interval with nothing to separate them, it becomes a best-of-five match.

If Mark were to win it, he would have breathing space once again.

It's hard to look past their two previous meetings at the World Championship over the years in best-of-25s - they've finished 13-12 and 13-11, and this has all the makings of going very close.

John Higgins does enough to get over the line in frame 10 and he's back to 6-4 behind against Neil Robertson.

A super break of 70 gives Barry Hawkins his first frame of the morning session and reduces his deficit to 10-9.

There's one more frame to be played before the mid-session interval.

Coverage of this match has finished for now on BBC Two but is available on this page via the "Watch and listen" tab and the BBC iPlayer.

Steven Hallworth
Snooker commentator on BBC Two

Barry Hawkins has shown great character here because he's suffered a bit of an onslaught with how this back end of the match has gone.

He's got a chance to stop the rot.

This is such a big game for Barry, as it is for Mark Allen.

Hawkins' break is now above 50, with a few more pots needed to secure the frame.

Barry Hawkins plays a brilliant recovery pot on the brown in the early stages of a break to keep it going.

A confidence booster for the Englishman, who was runner-up at the Crucible 13 years ago.

This is the last day of this tournament that there will be two tables in play at the Crucible Theatre.

From Thursday's semi-finals onwards, it will be switched to a one-table setup.

It means there will be a lot of hard work inside the venue overnight to transform the most famous arena in snooker.

Image source, PA Media

John Higgins knocks in a break of 51 to take the initiative in frame 10. Not a frame-winning contribution but he's a strong favourite to cancel out the opening frame won by Neil Robertson.

Ken Doherty
1997 world champion on BBC Two

There are such fine margins and they're going for Mark Allen at the moment.

Barry got a fluke and got himself into position [to pot the last red], he tried to hedge his bets and play it with a bit of pace, but you have to be so accurate.

What I think he should have done is fully commit, play it dead weight and give it a chance. Once you give it a bit of pace and hit the near jaw, it will stay over the pocket.

He's losing a lot of close frames at the worst possible time because we're on the final furlong now.

Mark Allen goes two frames in front and he's now won six of the past seven frames.

Barry Hawkins missed a tricky last red down the top cushion but left Allen snookered behind the black.

Allen potted that off the cushion before clearing the colours up to the pink.

Barry Hawkins adds 46 to his score before a tough long red to the green pocket stays up.

Back at the table, Mark Allen tries to develop one of the two remaining safe reds but can't do so.

Allen trails by five.

Steve Sutcliffe
BBC Sport at the Crucible Theatre

Image source, PA Media

MC Rob Walker aptly described last night's session between Barry Hawkins and Mark Allen as "snooker from the gods" but this morning's opening frame was very much more gritty match-play stuff.

And at present Northern Ireland's Allen, 40, is delivering on both fronts. Could this be the year he ends his long wait to triumph at the Crucible?

The World Championship trophy has eluded Allen so far and he has reached just two semi-finals in 19 previous attempts.

However, if he was to be victorious this time around he would become the oldest first-time winner in the modern era, eclipsing Stuart Bingham, who claimed the world title in 2015, aged 38 years and 343 days.

Neil Robertson clears the remaining balls for a break of 48 to go three frames in front of fellow former world champion John Higgins.

Mark Allen makes the first break of the 18th frame but it ends on 35 with a missed red - in his defence, it was awkward cueing over other balls.

What can Barry Hawkins do in reply?

Approaching the 40-minute mark in the opening frame of the morning session between Neil Robertson and John Higgins.

It's a frame that has followed the same pattern as much of yesterday's first session, with passages of safety play and the occasional chance, but neither player able to make a frame-winning contribution.

Robertson drills in a long red and, narrowly ahead, has an opportunity to clinch it now.