Mark Selby out in first round to Mark King

Mark Selby

Mark Selby came to Wembley Arena as the defending champion in the Ladbrokes Mobile Masters. And for the first two frames he played like one.

But then Mark King got his chance in the third frame and never looked back. The 36-year-old left-hander made the most of his opportunity with a 136 break and took the match 6-4.

It may be that Selby was the architect of his own downfall by taking King just a bit too cheaply in this first-round match, when he seemed to signal he had everything under control. It was an act that motivated King, who told worldsnooker.com: "I'm delighted. It's been coming because I've been playing well all season. Over Christmas I worked hard on my break building and today it worked out well.

"Mark seemed to think he'd won the match when he went 2-0 up and that ignited me. When it went 4-4 my heart was going a hundred miles an hour but I produced some good stuff in the last two frames. It's nice to know I've got that in the locker.

"That's probably the best I've ever played here and it was fantastic to do that in front of 1,000 people and show them how I can play."

The 36-year-old won the next four frames in a row, only for Selby to draw level at 4-4, including a break of 106. But King, the world No.16, had his blood up now and proved that the work on the practice table had been worthwhile.

The result must rank as one of the tournament’s biggest shocks in recent years given that Selby had previously lost just one match at Wembley in three years. That was in the 2009 final against Ronnie O'Sullivan, a result he avenged in the final 12 months ago.

“I started great, but after the third frame I went flat,” Selby said. “As defending champion I should have been right up for it, so I don't know why that was. I had a break over Christmas to recover from the busy schedule so I've got no excuses.

“Mark played great and deserved to win, he attacked me from the start and put me under pressure."

Last year King drew most attention from the Wembley crowd with some funky dancing as he walked into the arena, but not this time. "I'm not here to dance, I'm here to win the tournament," he said.

Selby knows that already.

In the other match on the first day of the tournament Peter Ebdon, the former world champion, rose from his sick bed to beat Ali Carter.

Ebdon, who had not practised prior to the match and only picked up his cue for the first time in five days just 15 minutes before he was due to play, found his usual stamina to grind out a 6-5 victory in a four-hour and 14-minute match which finished close to midnight.

Paul Wheeler

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