Scotland's John Higgins has an 11-5 lead over Englishman Shaun Murphy after the first day of the snooker world championship final at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Higgins won the opening three frames of the match but Murphy reeled off four frames in a row to edge 4-3 ahead.
Higgins, who won the title in 1998 and 2007, responded by taking the last frame of the session to level the scores.
When play resumed, the 33-year-old Higgins was in commanding form against the 2005 champion. He won seven out of the eight frames to go six ahead, finishing with a century break.
The best-of-35-frame final finishes tomorrow.
