John Higgins produced a battling display to fight back from 3-1 down to draw level at 4-4 against Shaun Murphy in the opening session of their World Championship semi-final at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
It was far from fluent from the four-time world champion, whose highest break of 50 gave him the eighth frame of the contest.
Indeed, for most of Thursday afternoon he appeared to still be feeling the effects of his late-night quarter-final victory over Neil Robertson.
Higgins, who turns 51 in May and is the oldest semi-finalist since Ray Reardon back in 1985, was still at the Crucible after midnight on Wednesday and it told as failed to make a number of easy pots in an error-strewn showing.
However, not for the first time in the tournament, he exhibited all his resolve and granite matchplay qualities that makes him such a dangerous opponent.
Their best-of-33 encounter resumes on Friday at 10:00 BST, with the remaining last-four match, between China’s Wu Yize and Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen, starting at 19:00 on Thursday.