Mark Selby believes he’s in for a tough test as he bids to reach a UK Championship final for the first time in nine years on Saturday.
Selby reached the semi-finals at the Barbican Centre in York with a scrappy 6-2 defeat of close pal Barry Hawkins on Friday.
Neither player was at his best, but Selby did enough to make his way through and reach the last four for the first time since he last triumphed at the Triple Crown event in 2016.
“I’m delighted to win,” Mark Selby, who won the Champion of Champions last month in his hometown of Leicester, told the World Snooker Tour.
“It’s never a nice game to play against Barry. He’s probably my best mate on the tour, we spend a lot of time together at tournaments.”
“We go out for food together, and even this morning we had a cup of tea at one of the cafes with him and Tara.
“So yeah, it’s never a nice game. I’ve so much respect for him as a lad and as a player. He’s a great lad. It’s a shame it ended up like that.
“It was always going to be one of us who was going to lose, so we were just hoping that it was going to be a decent game.
“If one of us lost, we would have thought that we were involved in a great game – it didn’t turn out that way, but that’s the way it is sometimes.
“I’ve had some early exits in the last nine years. I lost to Hossein one year, he played great. I lost to Lisowski last year I think, and he played great.
“It makes it even more impressive what I achieved many years ago when I was getting there a lot regular. Now I’m 42 with a lot of grey hairs, it’s not as easy.”
Shaun Murphy beat Mark Selby 6-1 at the British Open. Photo credit: WST
Next up for Selby is another fellow Englishman in Shaun Murphy, who extended his stay in the tournament with a 6-3 success over Zhang Anda in the quarter-finals.
Murphy triumphed at the British Open in September and reached the final of the Xi’an Grand Prix soon after.
Considering there have been no repeat champions on the circuit during the 2025/26 calendar yet, Selby believes that the Magician represents the best player of the campaign to date.
“He’s a class act, isn’t he? He’s a great ambassador for our game as well,” Selby continued. “Every time we play each other, it always seems to be a good game.”
“He bashed me up in the semi-finals of the British Open this year 6-1 and played great. For me, he’s probably the form player of the season.
“I think he’s probably been the best player consistently of the season so far, so I’m going to have to be somewhere near the top of my game.
“I’ll just go out there and try to enjoy it. Hopefully I can play well, and if I do, then I know I’ll have a chance.
“These Triple Crown events, as I keep saying, only come around once a year. So to still be involved at the back end of the tournament is always pleasing.”
Whoever emerges from the Selby and Murphy semi-final will face either Judd Trump or Neil Robertson in a blockbuster Sunday showdown for the silverware.
Saturday’s order of play
1pm UTC/GMT
Judd Trump vs Neil Robertson
7pm UTC/GMT
Mark Selby vs Shaun Murphy
Featured photo credit: WST
