Stephen Hendry re-wrote the record books as he set up a thrilling climax to the Embassy World Championship final with an impressive comeback against Peter Ebdon at the Crucible Theatre.
Hendry set a new tournament record for centuries in the second frame of the day with his 15th of the 2002 finals as he recovered from a 10-6 overnight deficit to draw level at 12-12.
That enabled him to beat the achievement of fellow Scot John Higgins who had chalked up 14 hundreds on his way to his 1998 title.
Then in the next frame Hendry also became the first ever player to notch up 100 tons in the world championships _ four in qualifiers at Preston and 96 at Sheffield.
Ebdon had started the day as the 4-7 favourite with the bookmakers after his impressive performance on Sunday. But the final was back in the balance with a possible 11 frames left to decide whether Hendry won his eighth crown, or Ebdon his first.
Hendry had struggled with his long potting game on Sunday and the initial signs after the resumption were not encouraging as a run of 68 to the final yellow enabled Ebdon to stretch his lead to five frames.
But Hendry showed he was still in the hunt with that record breaking century in the next which was also the 65th in total in the 2002 championships.
Then just for good measure he extended the record to 16 centuries in the next and reached his own 100 mark with a clearance to the final yellow of 108.
The final frame before the interval was a scrappy affair and lasted nearly 28 minutes but a run of 33 helped Hendry to win his third on the trot.
Hendry made it four frames in a row after the resumption with a break of 68 leaving Ebdon clinging onto an 11-10 advantage.
Ebdon managed to stop the slide despite going in-off a red into the middle pocket when on a break of 47. He also missed a straightforward black off its spot attempting to get onto the final red only to hold his nerve by sinking the decisive brown after it had come to rest near the black pocket.
But the momentum was now with Hendry who again cut his deficit to one with the aid of 36 and 46 in the penultimate frame of the session.
It was all square just nine minutes later as the now impressive looking Hendry put together another 93 and an indication of his dominance was that Ebdon failed to score a single point in four of the afternoon frames.