World Championship 2026: Champion Zhao Xintong takes on Shaun Murphy.

Neil Robertson took a narrow 5-3 lead over John Higgins.

Higgins put together breaks of 61 and 56 to take the first frame and the fourth was level at 2-2.

However, beating Ronnie O’Sullivan 13-12 took an emotional and physical toll on A An all-time Crucible classic On Monday, Scott, 50, was seen weighing in at times.

The four-time champion made six unforced errors before reaching the halfway mark of the session and was far from his best in a tough affair.

In the year Australia’s Robertson, who won the World Cup in 2010, enjoyed scores of 77 and 70, but failed to reach his peak and at one point had to have his chair repaired, extending his season.

As he took the last two frames of the session, his pragmatic approach and frantic run of balls lasted 52 minutes and delayed the start of the evening session.

Robertson and Higgins return on Wednesday at 10:00 BST.

On the other hand, Hossein Vafai and Wu Yize are remarkably tied at 4-4 after their best 25 matches.

With both players seemingly focused on attacking snooker, Iran’s Vafai hit a break of 66 to take a 2-1 lead before Wu showed himself to be one of the game’s rising talents to pull 4-2 with 90, 56 and 56.

Vafai, who had to win two qualifiers before going past Xi Jiahui in a last-frame thriller against world number one Judd Trump, responded with a break of 71.

And when Wu fails to tap the long black in the upper left corner, clearing the table up to the pink, and including.

They return on Wednesday at 14:30 BST for the second session of Top 25-Connected.