Snooker:Judd Trump emerged to a hero's welcome and kept his World Championship title dreams alive by sharing the opening eight frames of the final with John Higgins.
He had a century, an attempt on a maximum break which came to a rather early halt, and also showed signs of fallibility. But for the 21-year-old to finish level at 4-4 with Higgins will count as a satisfactory outcome ahead of the evening session.
Following a tribute to Ted Lowe, after the commentator's death this morning, Trump came out to a deafening roar, befitting his status as snooker's new superstar.
Trump's first-round win over last year's champion Neil Robertson was a stunning opening performance, but even then few other than the hyper-confident Trump himself expected to see him reach the final.
Yet victories over Martin Gould, 2006 champion Graeme Dott and reigning Masters champion Ding Junhui followed for the youngster from Bristol, earning him a shot at glory.
It is only seven weeks since Trump won a qualifying-round match against David Gilbert to reach the Crucible, and four weeks since he won his maiden ranking title at the China Open.
Higgins headed into the final on the back of an uncomfortable ending to his semi-final win over Mark Williams.
A spectator stood up in the 28th frame and, before being ejected, shouted at Higgins: "How did you swallow that £300,000 John? We know what you did. You're a disgrace to snooker."
The disgruntled fan was referring to the story which broke on the eve of the 2010 final, when Higgins and his then manager Pat Mooney were caught up in a newspaper sting after a meeting with reporters posing at businessmen in Ukraine.
Higgins was banned for six months after admitting to breaching rules around betting, but more serious charges of agreeing to throw frames for money were dropped. Higgins firmly denied wrongdoing.
Williams said: "There's always going to be people like that about. It probably won't be the last time someone does something like that.
"Obviously it's going to be very tough for him. He doesn't want to get reminded of it, especially when he's down on a shot. But it's just something he's got to take on the chin. He hasn't got any choice. I told him, 'There's nothing you can do about it'."
There was no repeat of the episode today. Trump has claimed he feels "invincible" during his Sheffield run and that sense would have been accentuated when he took two scrappy frames, helped by breaks of 46 and 42, to edge 2-0 ahead against three-time world champion Higgins.
But the 35-year-old Scot hit back, coming from 38-13 behind to take the third frame and 54-0 down to pinch the next, before runs of 51 and 64 nudged him ahead for the first time.
Higgins was pegged back to 3-3 by a 102 break by Trump, who attempted a 147 in the next frame but failed to put away the ninth red.
That gave Higgins a chance in a frame which had looked almost lost, and runs of 42 and 27 saw him go in front once more.
Trump reached 47 for a 49-8 lead in the final frame of the session when he ran fractionally out of position on the next red. He played what seemed a good safety, only for Higgins to make an exceptional pot.
The Scot was unable to make a frame-winning contribution though. After a safety exchange Higgins had another opportunity, but he already needed one snooker and when he missed black off the final red he was left with too much ground to make up and conceded.