Four-time World Champion Selby booked his last 16 slot with an dominant 6-2 win over Scottish Open champion Lei Peifan.
The Jester from Leicester is a two-time UK Champion, but hasn’t triumphed in York since 2016.
A 51 break in the opener this afternoon gave Selby a 1-0 lead on the black and a platform to build from. Further contributions of 82, 75 and 133 helped him charge into a 5-0 lead.
Lei pegged him back to 5-2, but recent Champion of Champions winner Selby took the eighth to get himself over the line.
Selby said: “I thought Lei battled well to 5-2 and it looked like he still fancied the job, which is a great mindset for him. I still felt calm but I was happy to get over the line. I didn’t want it to get too close.
“I feel like I’m somewhere close to my best. It would be nice to have a good run here. It has been a few years since I’ve had a good run in a Triple Crown event. I’d swap winning the Champion of Champions for winning this, that is for sure. I’m playing well so lets see what happens.”
Elliot Slessor won his first ever match at the York Barbican, defeating world number two Kyren Wilson 6-4 to make the last 16 of the Victorian Plumbing UK Championship.
The Tyneside cueman first appeared in York back in 2013, but it has taken him 12 years to finally win a match at the venue. He won final stage matches to reach the last 32 in 2020, but the event was displaced to Milton Keynes due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, this season has seen world number 21 Slessor make a major breakthrough. He beat the likes of Stuart Bingham, Mark Williams and John Higgins en route to the semis of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, where he lost to Neil Robertson. The £100,000 pocketed that week was the biggest payday of his career.
Wilson was visibly frustrated and emotional in the arena. The 2024 World Champion has spent his week in York trying to find solutions with his cue, which was recently damaged.
Slessor now turns his attentions to a last 16 tie with Londoner Barry Hawkins, while Wilson will next appear in Edinburgh at the Scottish Open.
After this evening’s first two frames were traded, Slessor won the third on the black to edge ahead. However, Wilson won the fourth to ensure parity at the mid-session, with the two players locked level at 2-2.
When play resumed, Slessor claimed two on the bounce to move 4-2 ahead. Wilson then appeared to click into gear with runs of 104 and 91 to make it 4-4.
The rally from the Warrior was to be short lived, as Slessor moved one from the win at 5-4. He then made 66 to get over the line and book his meeting with Hawkins.
“I just battled. That was all I had. I just battled as hard as I could and stayed in there. I knew it was a miracle that I was 4-2 up as he was the better player. He found a gear to go 4-4 and I knew I needed to find something myself,” said 31-year-old Slessor
“It is great to win against a player of Kyren’s class. He is a phenomenal player and a former World Champion. However, I know I can beat these players if I play my game. I’d have taken a lot more from that if I’d played better, but I’m still in the tournament and I can still improve.
“Barry is another phenomenal player. I can’t believe he hasn’t won a Triple Crown event, I think he is that good. He is a tremendous match player.”
On the other table, Hawkins emerged victorious after a hard fought 6-4 victory over 50-year-old qualifier David Lilley.
Hawkins was runner-up last year here in York. He beat the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Shaun Murphy to make the title match, but fell short 10-8 against world number one Judd Trump.
Victory today means the four-time ranking event winner remains in the hunt for that elusive first Triple Crown triumph.
Hawkins said: “It was a very difficult game. There was a spell mid-match where it looked like it would be a good standard, but it went scrappy again. I didn’t really feel match sharp.
“Elliot is playing really well. For the last three or four seasons I felt like he’d make a breakthrough. I’ve always rated him. He’s knocked out Kyren and you don’t do that unless you are playing well. I’ve got a difficult game and I need to up my game that is for sure.”
Mark Selby speaks out on a snooker future without Ronnie O’Sullivan
Mark Selby says snooker will survive a future without Ronnie O’Sullivan but admits the Rocket brings a unique atmosphere to tournaments.
O’Sullivan was beaten 6-4 by Zhou Yuelong in his UK Championship opener on Tuesday, losing in the first round for the second year on the bounce.
The seven-time world champion turns 50 this week and is playing a reduced schedule of mainly events in China and the Middle East.
This week’s visit to the Barbican in York was the first time he has played in the UK since his World Championship semi-final defeat to Zhao Xintong in May.
There is no real sign that O’Sullivan is set to hang up his cue at the moment, ranked five in the world and saying that he is still enjoying the game.
However, there will come a time at which the Rocket heads into retirement and Selby says that something will be lost from events.
‘For me, it’s always great when Ronnie is in a tournament,’ he said after beating Lei Peifan 6-2 on Tuesday in the same session as O’Sullivan’s loss. ‘It has that extra vibe.
‘Even just playing there, being in the same session, with the crowd you get that atmosphere which you don’t really get with any other player.
‘No disrespect to any other players on the tour, even myself, we’re all top players, but you don’t get that atmosphere with anyone else. If I’d have been playing with [John] Higgins on the next table or [Mark] Williams or Judd [Trump] or [Zhao] Xintong, even them guys, as good as they are, you still don’t get that atmosphere.’
The 42-year-old is backing the younger players on tour to bring in the crowds in future, though, naming a string of stars who play exciting snooker.
‘Hopefully he just carries on playing, he seems like he still enjoys it, or else he wouldn’t be playing. As long as he stays healthy I’m sure he’ll carry on.’
Selby would have met O’Sullivan in the last 16 if the Rocket had progressed, but instead he takes on Zhou for a place in the quarter-finals.
‘If you play Ronnie it would have been a great occasion and a tough game,’ he said. ‘Zhou’s obviously playing some decent stuff to beat Ronnie as well, he’s a great player himself.
‘Whoever I play it’s going to be a tough game. It would’ve been great to play Ronnie here in York, but not to be.’
Selby looks in very good form at the moment, after winning the Champion of Champions last month, and says he feels as good as he has done for a long time.
‘I feel like I’m somewhere close,’ he said on how near he is to his best. ‘It would be nice to have a run in these big ones because it’s been a few years since I’ve had a run in these Triple Crown events.
‘I’m playing some decent stuff and I’m fancying the big shots when I’m under it, which is key, because that’s been a little while before I’ve been in that position. I’m playing alright so let’s see what happens.’
Ronnie O'Sullivan 