Mark Selby all set to clash with Stephen Hendry - 2011 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship
The 27-year-old English professional snooker player, Mark Selby has moved to the next round and a step closer to his maiden Crucible title in the 2011 Betfred.com World Snooker Championship.
The progress to the best-of-twenty-five in the second round was already speculated for the highly fancied cueist as the world number three will face a relatively tougher opponent in next round. Selby took down the debutant, Jimmy Robertson,
with a brilliant 10-1 score-line on the final day of the first round.
Robertson, who qualified for the esteemed world championship by taking down the 1997 champion Ken Doherty, started of pretty well in the first session of the match on Wednesday by quickly winning the first frame. Selby immediately
took control of the game making good use of the lack of experience of Robertson to his own advantage, as he took the session to a concluding score-line of 8-1.
“I didn’t perform brilliantly but unfortunately for Jimmy, I think the occasion seemed to get the better of him.” Selby admitted his tactics to be vulnerable as he preyed upon the faults from the debutant. He started off brilliantly
in the first frame but after that he seemed to fade away.”
After an over-night lead of seven-frames, a brilliant century break put the Englishman within just one-frame distance to the last-16 and the second successive frame wasn’t too far to bring a merciless conclusion to Robertson’s first
Crucible appearance.
Robertson, on the other hand, was optimistic about the loss and said that the experience he has gained is indeed worth-while. He further added, "The atmosphere was brilliant. It takes a bit of getting used to. It was a good experience
and hopefully I'll get to come back again next year."
Mark Selby shall be up against a different contest in the next round match-up against a more experienced Scottish player, Stephen Hendry. Even-though Hendry had been in quite a good shape for the past some time, but Selby would have
a slight psychological upper-hand over the Scott, after he beat Hendry by 13-5 in the same round in the 2010 edition of this tournament.
Selby slightly in awe of the Scott said “It is a tough draw. It’s like Stephen’s second home, The Crucible. I played to a good standard last year so if I up my game I’ve got a good chance. I’m sure it’ll be a great match.”
The English cueist was a runner-up at the 2007 World Championships and almost made it to the finals last year, but eventually was taken down by a 14-17 loss against Graeme Dott. He had been involved in numerous tournaments this season,
but could not score a win as yet. Selby will be hoping that this edition of the tournament will be a fortnight to remember before his biggest day, his wedding in Mexico, which is due on May 24, 2011.
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