Selby: I Didn't Deserve To Win

Mark Selby admits he was fortunate to survive a first round battle with Yuan Sijun at the Spreadex World Grand Prix, but the local favourite came through 4-3 to reach the last 16.

This event at the Morningside Arena in Leicester brings together the top 32 players from this season's ranking list, in the first tournament of the 2024 Players Series. Tickets for the rest of the week are still available - for details click here. 

Selby, looking for his first title since the WST Classic at the same venue ten months ago, built a 3-1 lead with top breaks of 85 and 68 but missed chances in the next two frames as China's Yuan fought back to 3-3. The decider lasted 41 minutes and came down to the colours, Yuan eventually missing a difficult long green, handing Selby the opportunity to pot green, brown and blue for victory.

"I fell over the line," said Selby, who now meets Wu Yize or Masters finalist Ali Carter. "I played ok to go 3-1 ahead but then blew a good chance to win 4-2. I didn't deserve to win in the end, I was lucky. Yuan is a good player and when you don't kill the match off, the game will come back and bite you. He was potting long balls and little nudges were going wrong for me, but that was my own fault for not finishing the match earlier."

Judd Trump also had a tough opening draw but came from 2-0 down to beat Jamie Jones 4-2. Bristol's Trump is looking for his fourth ranking title of the season, having won three in a row in October. 

World number 40 Jones made a strong start as a break of 103 gave him the opening frame, then the Welshman got the better of a scrappy second. But Jones scored just 11 points in the remainder of the match as Trump took four frames in a row with top runs of 80, 81, 45 and 77.

"Jamie started well although I didn't do much wrong in the first two frames," said world number two Trump. "I got into my rhythm from 2-0. I have a lot of experience in these best-of-seven matches and I know I don't have to panic even at 2-0 down because once I get the momentum I can win three or four frames quickly."

Last week, Trump suffered the disappointment of a 6-5 defeat against Carter in the quarter-finals of the Masters, when he was defending the title. "It wasn't too hard to take because I had won a lot of close matches in the Masters and you can't keep getting out of jail," admitted the 34-year-old. "I gave it everything and I wasn't quite good enough, you can't be too hard on yourself. 

"I'm not one for setting targets and I have won three events already this season so any more would be a bonus. My only goal is to get my form back to where it was in October because I have gone off the boil a bit since then."

Trump now meets China's Lyu Haotian, who survived a Chris Wakelin fight-back to come through 4-3. Wuhan Open semi-finalist Lyu took a 3-0 lead with top breaks of 69 and 53, before Wakelin battled back to 3-3. A run of 68 gave Lyu the decider.   

Hossein Vafaei scored a 4-3 win over Matthew Selt with a top break of 134.