Mark Selby beat John Higgins 5-4 in a marathon five-hour tussle to reach the semi-finals of the BetVictor Welsh Open for the first time since 2012.
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Two of snooker's toughest match-players produced a contest which was low on quality by their high standards, but bubbled to an exciting conclusion, Selby getting the better of a tense decider to reach his 65th ranking event semi-final. He will meet Luca Brecel on Saturday as he continues his quest for a third title of the season, having already won the Unibet British Open and BetVictor Championship League Invitational.
"We both struggled and brought each other down, there were a lot of scrappy frames," admitted world number four Selby, who landed the first of his 23 ranking titles at the Welsh Open in 2008, but has not won it since. "If one of us had played better, the other might have raised his game. The only positive for me is that I got over the line and I can only improve tomorrow. If I had lost I would have been gutted, but now I can put that behind me."
Leicester's Selby took the opening frame on a respotted black, and the second on the colours. A break of 68 helped Higgins pull one back, and in frame four he converted a thundering a long pot on the penultimate red to create the chance for 2-2. The fifth frame lasted 62 minutes, resolved when Higgins potted brown and blue to go ahead, before Selby's run of 53 helped him restore parity. In the seventh, Higgins was on 61 when he over-cut a tricky thin red, and his opponent later made a 42 clearance to edge 4-3 ahead.
Selby was 15 points behind in frame eight when he missed the final green to a baulk corner, allowing Higgins to force the decider. The key moment came when Scotland's Higgins, down 35-13, potted the blue to a centre pocket and was unlucky not to gain position on a red. He then played a loose safety, and Selby slotted in a long red to set up a match-winning 84, his highest break of the day.
Higgins, still seeking a first ranking title since the 2021 Players Championship, said: "It was a mammoth game, I gave it everything. I know the shots but I've got deficiencies in my game. I just can't bring myself to play the right shot, that's the disappointing thing. At 3-3 when I was on 61, I had to play a high black into the pack, when I have been playing the low black and screwing into the reds. I just don't have the cue power to play those sort of shots. If I had gone 4-3 up then who knows. But Mark made a great clearance under pressure in the last frame."
Selby against Brecel will be a rematch of the 2023 Crucible final, which the Belgian won 18-15. Surprisingly, this will be Brecel's first ranking semi-final since that event 21 months ago. He beat Jackson Page 5-2 today to add momentum to his recent return to form.
There's no shortage of incentive for 29-year-old Brecel over the last weekend in Llandudno as if he beats Selby he will climb into the top 32 of the Johnstone's Paint One-Year Rankings and earn a place in the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong next month. If he then goes on to take the title, he will win not just the £100,000 top prize and Ray Reardon Trophy, but also the £150,000 BetVictor Bonus which goes to the player who earns the most money across the BetVictor Home Nations Series.
World number seven Brecel took the first two frames against Page before his opponent, the last Welshman in the field, responded with 67 and 103 for 2-2. After the interval, Brecel looked the stronger player, and compiled breaks of 94 and 76 in taking the last three frames. "I enjoyed the game and took my chances," said Brecel after reaching his 12th ranking event semi-final.