Mark Selby battles past Matt Selt to reach last 16 of World Snooker Championship

The four-time world champion was made to work very hard by the qualifier, but eventually secured the win after a lengthy scrap, setting up a second round clash with Gary Wilson.

Selby got off to a superb start in the contest, knocking in breaks of 94, 83 and 110 in the opening three frames, but Selt seemed unfazed as he responded with a 123 and 89 in the next two.

Unsurprisingly they couldn’t quite keep up that immense standard, but Selby did maintain a lead throughout, with the closest Selt got to him being when he narrowed his deficit to 9-8 as things got edgy towards the end.

It was a solid enough victory for the Jester from Leicester, overcoming a bit of a wobble in the latter stages and making an absolutely superb break of 112 in the final frame to secure the match 10-8.

Steve Davis said of that break in the last frame on the BBC: ‘Any snooker players, pros watching at home, budding professionals, will be in awe of what they’ve just seen.

‘To do that under the utmost pressure, when your opponent is coming back at you, it’s so easy to look over your shoulder and fall to pieces.

‘It’s like he doubled down on it. There wasn’t even an inkling he was going to miss. Apart from experience that requires incredible bottle and something that’s very difficult to teach.’

Selt added: ‘He potted some unbelievably great balls in that last break and he was a worthy winner.’

Selby said of how he’s feeling at this year’s World Championship: ‘The last month or so I feel like I’ve been playing better, happy with where my game’s at.

‘The biggest thing for me is the enjoyment and the enjoyment is back.’

Wilson awaits after the Tyneside Terror beat Elliot Slessor 10-8 in his first match, knocking in two centuries along the way.

It will be a rematch of a 2019 World Championship clash in the last 16 which Wilson won 13-10 in a significant upset as the man from the North East enjoyed a run to the semi-finals.

It is the second result of Thursday’s action after Robert Milkins produced an incredible comeback to beat Joe Perry 10-9 to reach the last 16.

The Gentleman had lead 7-2 after the first session but collapsed somewhat on Thursday morning and the Milkman roared into a last 16 clash with either Shaun Murphy or Si Jiahui, who play to a conclusion on Thursday evening.

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