Mark Selby’s hopes of winning the XingPai China Open for a third consecutive year were crushed at the first hurdle as he lost 6-3 to Craig Steadman.

Selby won this event in Beijing in 2015, 2017 and 2018 but this time he faces an early flight back to the UK. It has been a patchy season for the Leicester cueman, his only real highlight coming at the China Championship in September when he beat John Higgins in the final.

Selby will head to the Crucible later this month lacking sharpness, on a streak of four consecutive defeats going back to February’s Welsh Open. Today’s result also means that Ronnie O’Sullivan will be world number one going into the World Championship.

Beating Selby in this lucrative event, which has total prize money of £1 million, is perhaps the best result of 36-year-old Steadman’s career so far. He goes through to the last 64 to face Dominic Dale on Tuesday.

Breaks of 64 and 99 helped Selby take a 3-2 lead but he didn’t score a point in the next three frames as Lancashire’s Steadman fired runs of 77, 108 and 86 to go 5-3 up. Frame nine lasted 53 minutes and came down to the colours, with Selby making a crucial error when he attempted to pot the yellow but sent it flying off the table. Steadman eventually potted the brown to seal the result.

“Craig was unbelievable, he played as well as a top 16 player,” said Selby. “From 3-2 I didn’t do much wrong. Sometimes you just have to say ‘well played’ to your opponent. It seems to be going that way for me at the moment, I am playing well and still losing.

“Hopefully my results will turn around. I had the number one spot for four years but sooner or later I was going to lose it, and Ronnie has played well this season. It will make me stronger, to try to get it back. I’ll go home now and prepare for Sheffield.”

Source-World Snooker