Four-time world snooker champion Mark Selby suffered a shock first-round defeat to debutant Joe O’Connor at the Crucible Theatre on Monday.
Selby, who questioned his future in the sport after losing to Gary Wilson in the Tour Championship earlier this month, went down to a 10-6 defeat to fellow Leicestershire star O’Connor having trailed 7-2 after the Sunday morning session.
Selby managed to draw on his famous fighting qualities as he opened with a break of 112 and also fired a 91 to reduce the deficit to 8-5 at the mid-session interval.
O’Connor, the only debutant in the tournament this year, showed few signs of nerves as he nudged 56 points from victory in the next to move one more frame from a famous victory.
Selby responded once more with a break of 67 then threatened to edge within two frames when he went 39 points up in the next before an ice-cool red down the rail by his opponent effectively confirmed his demise.
It marked the first time since 2018 that Selby has lost in the first round, and prompted ‘The Jester from Leicester’ to admit that he will give some serious thought to his future in the summer.
Selby told the BBC: “I’ll sit down with (my wife) Vicky and see what the options are.
“Obviously it will be a big decision but if I do carry on playing I need help, probably on the mental side of it a little bit more just to go out there and enjoy the game.
“That’s all I want to do, go out there and enjoy it and, for me, it’s always sort of life or death; I’ve always been that kind of character, putting too much pressure on myself and trying too hard.”
O’Connor will battle either No 12 seed Kyren Wilson or Dominic Dale in round two.
Shaun Murphy began his quest for a second world title in style as he cruised his way into the second round with a 10-5 victory over Lyu Haotian.
Murphy started the session with a 6-3 lead and was looking to carry on where he left off when he punished China’s Haotian from 38 points behind to pinch the opening frame to extend his advantage to four.
Murphy secured the next to make it five consecutive frames but Haotian won two out of the next three to extend the tie slightly.
A relaxed Murphy did not sweat and – with the 2005 world champion just needing a solitary frame for the win – he wrapped it up in style with a break of 81 to put himself into the second round of the tournament for the first time since 2021.
Murphy described criticism of snooker’s fabled Crucible as sacrilege after Iran’s Hossein Vafaei described it as “smelly”.
The start of this year’s tournament has been overshadowed by verbal pot shots at the iconic venue that has hosted the tournament since 1977.
Responding to Vafaei’s comments, 2005 champion Murphy said: “This is holy ground. It’s almost sacrilege for a professional snooker player to be so openly critical of our home.
“Hossein should educate himself on how our tour works in relationships with the WST and our broadcast partners, and what a special place this is.
“Does he think he is helping our sport grow by being so openly critical of one of our biggest partners? He has not helped the sport at all.”
Stuart Bingham stormed into an impressive three-frame lead to give him a healthy advantage at the end of the first session, leading Gary Wilson 6-3.
