Ryan Day established a 6-3 lead against world number 14 Anthony McGill in the opening session of their first round meeting.

Welshman Day narrowly missed out on automatic qualification for the Crucible, finishing the China Open ranked 17th. After dropping only nine frames at qualifying he appears to have carried that form over to the Theatre of Dreams.

He moved 2-0 ahead with a sublime break of 141. However, McGill showed great character to hit back with breaks of 65 and 75 and draw level at the mid-session.

When they returned Day moved 4-3 in front and crucially won an enthralling eighth frame. McGill required a snooker on the pink, which he got, before hammering home a superb long pot which left tricky position on the final black. He jawed it and left the final ball at Day’s mercy to go 5-3 up.

He hammered home his advantage in style with a tournament high break of 145 to make it 6-3. Amazingly that run saw Day become the first player in Crucible history to make two breaks of 140 or more in a single session.

They will play to a conclusion tomorrow at 1pm.