December 1st 2023.
Mark Selby is gearing up for a major challenge against Judd Trump in the UK Championship quarter-finals on Friday. Trump has been the standout player this season, having won three ranking titles and reached the finals of two more. Selby is aware that he is facing a tough opponent and will need to perform at his best to stand a chance.
Selby has been in sparkling form this week, beginning with a convincing win over Mark Joyce, followed by a hard-fought 6-5 victory against Barry Hawkins. After the match, Selby said that Trump was by far the player of the season and the one to beat. He knows he will have to match or exceed the level of performance he achieved against Joyce to have a chance against Trump.
The other noteworthy match in the quarter-finals is between former champions Mark Williams and Ding Junhui. Williams has been in excellent form and said he was looking forward to the match, as the tournament is being held in its traditional form with two tables at the front and two tables at the back. Meanwhile, Ding is not feeling particularly confident, having lost all of his previous meetings with Williams this year.
The other two quarter-finals will see Ronnie O'Sullivan facing off against Zhou Yuelong and Hossein Vafaei taking on the surprise package of the campaign, Zhang Anda. O'Sullivan needed a deciding frame to edge out Rob Milkins 6-5, while Zhou has already beaten Neil Robertson and John Higgins on his way to the last eight. Hossein Vafaei has made it through qualifying and picked up a big win over Shaun Murphy in the first round before hammering Matt Selt 6-1 on Thursday night with three centuries along the way. Zhang Anda has already been to the English Open final this season and stunned the field to win the International Championship. He is now looking for his third semi-final of the season, having never reached one in his career before this campaign.
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
[Generative AI is experimental.]
