Mark Selby of England plays a shot during the round 1 match against Ali Carter of England at Snooker Masters 2020 at the Alexandra Palace in London, Britain, Jan. 12, 2020. (Photo by Tim Ireland/Xinhua)
Mark Selby reaches last 16 at Snooker World Championship.
LONDON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three-time world champion Mark Selby beat Jordan Brown 10-6 in Sheffield on Tuesday to reach the second round at the Snooker World Championship.
Selby, 37, only grabbed a slender advantage of 5-4 in the first session and shared the opening four frames of the second session with Brown. But the world number seven claimed the following three frames in a row, setting a clash with Thailand's Noppon Saengkham in the last 16 stage.
Earlier, world number 42 Saengkham saw off former world champion Shaun Murphy 10-4.
Selby admitted that he was a little bit surprised by his next opponent. "There are no easy games anymore though. I've played Noppon a few times and he was fantastic," said Selby to the World Snooker Tour website.
The World Championship was unveiled last Friday after being postponed for more than three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Five-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan will face China's top player Ding Junhui in the second round while world number one and reigning champion Judd Trump will fight against Chinese hopeful Yan Bingtao for a quarterfinal berth. ■