King Ends Selby’s Wembley Love Affair
Mark King beat defending champion, Mark Selby in the opening match at this year’s Ladbrokes Mobile Masters, ending a run that has seen the Leicester man contest each of the previous three Wembley finals, winning two of them.
Selby, had won eleven of his previous 12 encounters since 2008 and was hoping to emulate the late Paul Hunter, who won the Masters three times in four years between 2001 and 2004.
It was all going to plan after the first two frames with Selby winning both against an opponent with a less than impressive record in front of his home crowd.
King, though had other ideas and in frame three, made a break of 139 before winning a scrappy fourth to level at the interval.
When they resumed, a brace of fifty-plus breaks put the popular Essex man two frames in front.
Selby rallied to make the scores level again, only for King to produce of 77 and 79 and seal one of his best all-round performances and easily the best win of his Masters career.
In the next round, he will face either Shaun Murphy or Masters debutant, Jamie Cope.
When asked how far he thought he could go in the tournament now, he said, “Who knows!”.
“If I keep hitting the ball like that and thinking the way I am right now, who knows what I can achieve”.
King credited seven times world champion, Stephen Hendry after he ‘nicked’ some advice from the Scot on a recent trip to the Far East.
He added, “It is no secret, I am the worst break-builder in the game. So, I asked Stephen a few questions, and some of what he said has made a big difference”.
