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Selby, Williams reach final at Snooker China Open

Xinhua, April 1, 2017 Adjust font size:

Mark Selby went through a tough challenge from Kyren Wilson, claiming a 6-4 victory over the world 14th-ranked player to set the final with Mark Williams, who knocked out Hossein Vafaei 6-1 in the afternoon, at the World Snooker China Open here on Saturday.

Selby has won four of the five previous clash with the 25-year-old Wilson, who eliminated home favorite Ding Junhui 5-3 in the quarter-final on Friday. But it turned out a tough battle today as the two players made a 4-4 draw after eight frames.

"I think I won the game because I adjusted well during the process, " said Selby, "I got a slow start but I tried to get back on the right way, made it from 4-4 to 6-4." It was Selby all the way in the last two frames as he eventully sealed the match with a break of 93 in the 10th frame.

The world No.1 also thought highly of his opponent Wilson, the only player ranked top-16 who was born after 1990.

"He is a great young player, I'm happy to see he has made some good results at a young age. This is a good trend in our sport," said Selby.

Earlier in the afternoon, Williams showed hot form to beat Hossein Vafaei 6-1 to keep his hope of directly qualifying the World Championship alive. The Welsh Potting Machine needs to win the title at Beijing to get the seeded spot at Crucible.

"I've been practicing quite a bit lately. I know about the incentive that if I win the tournament, I qualify for the Crucible, but I haven't won in a while," said three-time China Open winner Williams.

"At the start of the week it was five or six games to qualify for the Crucible and looked out of my reach. Now it's only one match, it's within my grasp now really.

"I'm not anxious or nervous, I'm just excited. I've won this tournament a few times before and this is one of my favorite places to come and play."

Vafaei, the only professional player from Iran, had made the best win of his career to beat defending Champion Judd Trump 5-3 in the quarter-final. The appearance at the semi-final was also the best record for the world 76th-placed in any ranking event. Enditem