Selby In Control
Mark Selby is just four frames away from a place in the Duelbits Tour Championship semi-finals having built a 6-2 lead over Ryan Day in Hull.
Day made a marvellous maximum break in the third frame, but otherwise it was Selby who dominated as he set course for a match with against Shaun Murphy on Saturday.
Leicester’s Selby was in tremendous form in winning last week’s WST Classic and he will keep his hot streak going if he can reach ten frames tonight. There’s an extra incentive for Selby this week as he can regain the world number one position from Ronnie O’Sullivan by reaching the final.
If Day loses today then he’s out of the Race to the Crucible and will have to go to the Cazoo World Championship qualifiers, which will mean that Ding Junhui and Gary Wilson take the last two places as top 16 seeds.
Two breaks of 77 put Selby 2-0 ahead before Day replied with his superb 147. The Welshman had a chance to level at the end of a scrappy fourth frame, but ran out of position on the final blue, and Selby eventually potted the blue for 3-1.
Day took the fifth with a run of 51, but Selby hit back with 75 and 132 to go 5-2 up. The closing frame of the session lasted 43 minutes and came down to the last red. Selby trapped his opponent in a tough snooker, generating penalty points which put him 36 points ahead, which proved enough.
They resume at 7pm.