Snooker: Ronnie O'Sullivan was taken to the brink of defeat before scraping into the third round of the UK Championship in York today.
The former world number one went from 7-4 up to 7-8 down against Ricky Walden, but then battled back from 56 points behind to force a decider which he won with a break of 108.
Level at 4-4 with the world number 36 after the first session, 'The Rocket' looked to have shaken off his opponent's challenge when he won today's first three frames.
But Walden, who knocked out John Higgins in the same stage of this tournament two years ago, refused to give up and compiled decisive contributions of 102, 93, 85 and 79 to turn the match on its head.
The 24-year-old was edging close to the finishing line in frame 16 but broke down on a break of 52 and O'Sullivan cleared from the last red to pinch it on the black.
A single visit to the table was then all the three-time former UK title-holder required to secure a last-16 clash with 2004 champion Stephen Maguire, who had also edged through a final-frame showdown with Joe Swail a few minutes earlier.
O'Sullivan admitted he had been fortunate to go through, acknowledging the unpredictable bounce off the table's cushions had hindered Walden on his potentially match-winning break.
"The table wasn't the worst I've played on but it was somewhere near there," said the 31-year-old. "You just had to trust to luck with the cushions to get position on key shots.
"If it hadn't been for a cushion Ricky would have won 9-7, so a bad table has got me through to the next round in a way and that's not how you want to win.
"I told Ricky after the match that only a cushion had cost him the match, and that if he keeps playing like that it won't be long before he's challenging for titles.
"It was a very good match all the way through and he deserved to win. I'm just disappointed for Ricky that a table reacting the way you don't expect it to has cost him the match." PA