Ding Junhui recovered from an early 2-1 deficit to win the opening session.
Ding Junhui took a narrow 5-3 lead over Mark Selby in the first session of the Welsh Open final in Newport.
China's Ding, playing his first ranking final of the year, won three frames in a row either side of the mid-session interval to lead 4-2.
But Selby, who had hit breaks of 103 and 124 to take an early 2-1 lead, stayed in contention with a 66 in the seventh frame.
Ding needs four frames in the evening session to win the best-of-17 final.
Selby, the winner of the tournament in 2008, could have gone 3-1 up at the mid-session break after Ding missed a pink.
The Leicester player sunk the pink but missed the black and had to watch as his opponent squeezed in a difficult shot to take the frame.
The match resumes at 1900 GMT.
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