Mark Selby on brink of worst ever exit at World Snooker Championship after recent threat to quit the sport
MARK SELBY is facing his worst ever Crucible exit at the hands of a hometown rival.
Joe O’Connor grew up in Leicester and looked up to the four-time world snooker champion, who is 12 years his senior.
The East Midlands debutant, 28, incredibly leads 7-2 after the Sunday morning session and needs just three frames on Monday to claim a significant scalp, arguably the biggest of his career.
Selby, 40, was knocked out 10-3 by Barry Hawkins from the first round in 2012 and that remains the fewest number of frames won by him in a single match in Sheffield.
There was mitigation for that loss, however, because he had had been suffering from a neck injury.
The Jester will not be laughing if he is booted out this time, especially as he recently threatened to quit the sport if his poor form continued.
O’Connor scored breaks of 122 and 101 after the mid-session interval and if he gets one more century he will equal the record for a Crucible rookie.
The former Scottish Open finalist took the wrong turn ahead of the 10am start when he was announced by MC Rob Walker.
He turned left and almost walked out of the theatre before realising his mistake and going right down the arena stairs.
The winner will battle either No.12 seed Kyren Wilson or Dominic Dale in round two.
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JUDD TRUMP kick-started his quest for a second world crown with a 10-5 triumph over Iranian Hossein Vafaei.
But his last-32 display was absent of any centuries.
Unusually there were no half century breaks from either player in the second session on Sunday afternoon.
Nonetheless, he remains on a collision course with world No.1 Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-finals.