In the morning session’s other match, China’s Zhao Xintong took control of his quarter-final tie with Chris Wakelin.
The Englishman, who came through two qualifying rounds to get to the Crucible, eliminated 2010 world champion Neil Robertson in the first round of the main tournament and then defeated former world number one Mark Allen in the last 16.
Wakelin, 33, made a break of 93 to take the opening frame, but 28-year-old Zhao then dominated to win six in a row, although Wakelin took the last to trail 6-2 before that match resumes at 19:00 BST.
Zhao, a former UK Championship winner, was one of 10 players from China to receive a ban in a match-fixing scandal.
He did not directly throw a match, but accepted charges of being a party to another player fixing two matches and betting on matches himself. Zhao – who served a 20-month ban for those offences – is the only of the 10 players sanctioned in the scandal to have returned to action.
As a result of the ban, he lost his place on the World Snooker Tour, although he has already ensured he will be back on the tour full-time next season.
For this tournament, he is officially classed as an amateur and this is his seventh match of the competition, after he had to fight through four qualifying rounds to reach the main draw.
