McGill On Course To Stun Selby

Anthony McGill is just three frames away from knocking defending champion Mark Selby out of the Betfred World Championship, having taken a 10-6 lead after two sessions.

Promising 24-year-old potter McGill won three qualifying matches before beating Stephen Maguire on his Crucible debut, and is now on target for the biggest win of his career so far. Selby, who won the title for the first time last year, must win seven of the last nine frames tonight to avoid becoming the latest victim of the Curse of the Crucible.

Starting today’s session at 4-4, McGill won three of the first four frames on the colours, with Selby’s only highlight coming in frame 11 with a break of 120. After the interval, world number one Selby made an 83 to close to 7-6.

But McGill, showing great composure, dominated the last three frames of the session, compiling runs of 125 and 54 as he surged four ahead. They resume at 7pm, first to 13 frames going through to a quarter-final meeting with Shaun Murphy or Joe Perry.

Stuart Bingham, who has only reached the quarter-finals once before, established a 6-2 lead over Graeme Dott.

A break of 64 gave Bingham the opening frame, then he cleared from brown to black for 2-0. Dott, the 2006 champion, made a 69 to pull one back. but Basildon’s Bingham got the better of a scrappy fourth frame, then made a 59 to lead 4-1.

A 68 from Dott gave him frame six, but tenth seed Bingham took the next for 5-2, then made his first century of the tournament, 100, to give himself a four frame cushion. They return for eight more frames at 7pm.