Mark Williams is trying to pull off an epic comeback in the World Snooker Championship final on Monday, but it would not be the biggest in Crucible history.
The Welshman is taking on Chinese star Zhao Xintong and, like everyone before him in Sheffield this year, is finding it very difficult.
After thrashing Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-7 in the semi-finals, Zhao continued his brilliant form by starting the final in rampant fashion.
By the end of Sunday’s opening session Zhao was 7-1 ahead of the three-time champion and in a dream scenario.
The second session on Sunday evening was much better for the Welshman, who claimed that session 5-3 and found himself 11-6 behind.
No player has ever bounced back from being five frames behind overnight in the final, so it would be new ground if Williams could come back and win.
However, it would not be the biggest comeback at the World Championship, or even in a final.
The biggest comeback in a World Snooker Championship final was in 1985, the most famous game in the sport’s history.
Dennis Taylor eventually beat Steve Davis 18-17 on the final black, watched by 18.5 million people in the UK.
It was a remarkable win, made even more incredible by the fact that Taylor lost the first eight frames of the match.
It was a nightmare start for the Northern Irishman, who was the underdog against the Nugget, as Davis won all seven frames in the opening session and then the first of the second to look incredible strong at 8-0.
Taylor was unfazed, though, and incredibly won eight of the next nine frames to be right back in contention at just 9-8 down.
The match wound its way all the way to a deciding frame at 17-17, with Taylor pinching it on the black. In an illustration of how different the game was then, there wasn’t a single century scored in the match.
The greatest comeback at the Crucible, in terms of number of frames won, came in 2023 when Luca Brecel stormed back to beat Si Jiahui in the semi-finals.
The Belgian Bullet was 14-5 behind against Si in the unexpected semi-final two years ago and his hopes looked to be at an end.
He didn’t feel that way, though, getting on a roll and ending up winning the match 17-15.
Coming back from nine frames behind remains the biggest comeback that has happened at the Crucible.
Brecel would go on to beat Mark Selby in the final and sensationally become world champion.