Higgins facing d-day

Defending champion John Higgins was facing a shock exit from the 888.com World Championship in Sheffield on Saturday Morning.

Higgins trailed Welshman Ryan Day 11-9 at the mid-session interval of their second round clash at the Crucible, with 13 frames needed to book a place in the quarter-finals.

The Scot led 4-0 and 6-3 during Friday's play but resumed at 8-8 and quickly lost the first three frames, even though Day's highest break was just 49. A run of 83 saw Higgins back to his fluent best and gave him renewed hope, but the 32-year-old still needed to win four of a possible five remaining frames to progress.

Another former champion, Shaun Murphy, was also in trouble against Essex's Ali Carter, the 2005 champion trailing 8-2 after losing the first two frames in their session.

Carter won a tight opener 64-44 after 35 minutes and rolled in a break of 67 in the next to edge closer to a quarter-final against 2002 champion Peter Ebdon, who defeated Mark King 13-9 on Friday.