Selby Sizzles in Sheffield
Mark Selby sailed through to the last 16 of the second Players Tour Championship event in Sheffield dropping just one frame and making four century breaks.
As the temperature outside soared, so did Selby’s performance on the table.
The Masters champion made what appeared to be a tricky section of the draw, look like a Saturday afternoon walk in the park.
In the opening round, he faced Liverpool’s Rod Lawler. He made breaks of 62, 92 and 125 to open a three nil lead and rounded the match off, outscoring his opponent by 373 to 84.
In the tie of the round, Selby was up against 2005 world champion, Shaun Murphy who had beaten Peter Ebdon in the opener.
Selby made the stronger start taking the first frame with a break of 84 only for Murphy to hit back with a run of 67 to level.
Frame three was a turning point in the match, with Murphy opening up with a second successive 67. He failed to get over the line and Selby punished, clearing with a superb 73.
Murphy could only trouble the scorer for a further 12 points as the world number nine finished off with breaks of 85 and 110.
Earlier in the day, China’s Liu Chuang had ended the hopes of ladies world champion, Reanne Evans on her professional debut.
Chuang followed up with a comfortable win against Ben Harrison to earn a shot at Selby.
The Jester from Lester proved much too strong and won in less than an hour making frame winning breaks in each of the four frames including another two centuries.
In Sunday’s last 16, he will take on World 6-Red Champion, Mark Davis who beat the number one seed, Mark Williams in round two.
