Ronnie O'Sullivan moved one frame away from a sixth World Snooker Championship title after taking a 17-8 lead against Kyren Wilson ahead of the final session.
Wilson looked fresh and focused as he took the opening frame of the day with a break of 73 to reduce the deficit to 10-8.
But O'Sullivan was also up for the challenge, and a series of costly errors from Wilson in the subsequent frames shifted the momentum firmly in favour of the 44-year-old.
Wilson was handed a good chance to claw back the deficit in the following frame but hit a simple pink into the middle jaws and O'Sullivan went 11-8 in front.
Ronnie potted the first six balls of a potential maximum in the frame that followed, but after faltering, Wilson once again missed a chance to make him pay, and O'Sullivan swept up the remaining balls to make it 12-8.
And it was the same story in the final frame of the first mini-session as O'Sullivan took a second chance to fire a break of 57 and extend his advantage to five frames.
The misery continued for Wilson after the mid-session interval, as Wilson came off worse in a safety exchange and O'Sullivan clinically cleaned up to green with a break of 60.
Wilson must have been craving the end of the session - and after O'Sullivan extended his streak to six frames with respective breaks of 71 and 72, the 28-year-old mistakenly believed it had come to an end.
In fact his agony had to stretch to one more frame, which O'Sullivan suitably wrapped up to leave him requiring just one more frame this evening to seal his sixth world crown.
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