World Grand Prix champion Neil Robertson booked a semi-final meeting with World Champion Kyren Wilson after defeating Mark Selby 6-3 at the Sportsbet.io Players Championship in Telford.
Robertson scored a sensational victory in the opening event of the Players Series 11 days ago. The Australian whitewashed Stuart Bingham 10-0 in the World Grand Prix final in Hong Kong to capture the 25th ranking title of his career and second of the season, following the BetVictor English Open.
Prior to these wins, the Melbourne cueman’s ranking was plummeting and he was facing another trip to Crucible qualifying, having dropped to 26th in the world ahead of the English Open. Robertson now finds himself 11th in the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings and is assured of a place in the final stages of the upcoming World Championship.
Robertson met Bingham once again in the opening round this week, but it was a far closer encounter this time around. He needed to rally from 3-1 down to score a 6-4 victory.
Today’s contest saw Robertson extend his impressive head-to-head lead over Selby to 19-9. Leicester’s four-time World Champion Selby will now turn his attention to the series finale in Manchester at the Sportsbet.io Tour Championship.
Despite Selby crafting a stunning 139, it was Robertson who took three of the first four frames to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.
When play got back underway, Robertson enhanced his lead with a break of 72 to make it 4-1.
Selby replied with 88 in the sixth, with Robertson then making 99 in the seventh to move one away at 5-2. He was pegged back in the next frame, but Robertson got over the line in the ninth to emerge a comfortable 6-3 victor.
“There wasn’t a big flurry of breaks in the match, but Mark is someone who is hard to get chances out of. He isn’t going to play loose shots and leave you in the balls, you really need to earn it,” said 43-year-old Robertson. “Mark and I have played each other an awful lot over the years. I think I’ve faced him more than any other player. We’ve had a lot of big matches against each other in our careers.
“You need to stand up and be counted (against Kyren Wilson). It is as simple as that. He plays very aggressively. I don’t think either one of us will step down at any point in the match, we are both going to really go for it.
“I love the way he plays the game. I’ve always admired him. When he used to come and practise with Joe Perry I thought he could have a wonderful career. He works so hard and has been a brilliant World Champion. He has shown how you should conduct yourself in the following season after winning the World Championship.”
Robertson Winning Interview