Career

Selby showed potential as a teenager, but did not consistently shine until his twenties. He began his career on the UK Tour in 1998, at the time the second-level professional tour.He reached his first ranking final aged 19, the Regal Scottish in 2003, where he finished runner-up to David Gray, losing 9–7 in the final. Before that, he had also already reached the semi-finals of the 2002 China Open, despite leaving his hotel room at 2 a.m. instead of 2 p.m. for one match due to jetlag.

2014/2015

In the first ranking event of the season, the Wuxi Classic, Selby lost 3–5 to Liang Wenbo in the last 32.He won the minor-ranking Riga Open, defeating Mark Allen 4–3 in the final,but lost 5–6 to Allen in the semi-final of the ranking Shanghai Masters.He suffered a surprise early exit in the last 128 of the ranking International Championship when 19-year-old tour rookie Oliver Lines came from 0–4 behind to defeat him 6–4.In the invitational Champion of Champions tournament, he reached the quarter-finals, but lost 1–6 against Judd Trump.[80] He suffered another early exit at the UK Championship when he lost 4–6 to David Morris in the last 64.Playing Shaun Murphy in the first round of the Masters, Selby fell 1–5 behind before recovering to 5–5, but lost the match 5–6 on the deciding frame.

2015/2016
Selby's first semi-final of the season came at the International Championship courtesy of knocking out Neil Robertson 6–4, but he lost 9–4 to John Higgins.Selby did not drop a frame in reaching the third round of the UK Championship and saw off Jamie Jones 6–5, admitting later that his opponent had deserved to win the match.He then eliminated Dechawat Poomjaeng and Matthew Selt both 6–1, before being whitewashed 6–0 by Robertson in the semi-finals.Selby lost in the quarter-finals of both the Masters and Welsh Open to Ronnie O'Sullivan, but won the Gdynia Open with a 4–1 victory over Martin Gould.

2016/2017
Selby won his first title of the season at the Paul Hunter Classic by beating Tom Ford 4–2.His semi-final with Stuart Bingham at the Shanghai Masters was a meeting between the top two ranked players in the world and Selby won 6–5, having been 5–3 behind.After taking an early 3–1 advantage over Ding Junhui in the final, Selby was ousted 10–6.He was beaten 6–2 by Judd Trump in the semi-finals of the European Masters.Selby saw off Bingham 9–3 to reach the final of the International Championship and won the event for the first time by thrashing Ding Junhui 10–1 in the final in Daqing, China. Selby dominated the contest, winning the last seven frames in a row, in the most one-sided ranking event final since the 2012 Haikou World Open when Mark Allen beat Stephen Lee by the same scoreline. Selby made seven breaks over 50 while Ding managed a top run of just 47.