Wakelin stuns defending champion Selby to reach semi-finals in Leicester

Chris Wakelin knocked out defending champion Mark Selby 6-2 to reach the Champion of Champions semi-finals for the first time in his career, capping an opening day in Leicester in which he also beat Barry Hawkins 4-1 in round one.

Selby had earlier needed a decider to see off Shoot Out champion Alfie Burden, winning 4-3, which set up the evening group-decider against Wakelin for a place in the last four.

Neither player found much fluency once the group-decider began. According to Metro Snooker, Wakelin's highest break was 56 with only one other half-century across the match, while Selby, the four-time world champion, managed just one 50-plus effort himself.

SnookerHQ reported that the pair combined for only three half-century breaks in total, with Wakelin opening and closing the contest with runs of 54 and 56.

Stephen Hendry, working for ITV4, questioned the quality of Wakelin's victory rather than the result itself. Hendry said Wakelin had missed a straightforward black in the final frame that could have let Selby back into it, adding that Wakelin had then been 'gifted the pink over the hole by Mark Selby'.

Asked whether he was impressed, Hendry said: "Not really. Ok it was a great victory for him but he'll have a little bit of a sour taste the way he's won the match." He added that Wakelin made fewer unforced errors than his opponent, concluding: "he won ugly tonight."

Wakelin, who qualified for the invitational event by winning the Scottish Open at the end of last year, offered his own explanation for the scrappy standard. He told ITV Sport that a warped cue on his travels to China had forced him back to an old one only four days before the tournament, leaving him unsettled on safety shots, long pots and timing.

"The white is just not going where I expect it to," Wakelin said. "I think 90% of the time where I've hit one not quite right, I've got lucky." He added that he could see Selby "shaking his head and getting frustrated towards the end", saying, "I can't say I blame him."

Despite the result, Wakelin was effusive about Selby, revealing the pair had practised together for seven or eight years and that Selby had mentored him during a difficult spell in his career. "To the purist out there, Mark Selby probably is the greatest of all time," Wakelin said, pushing back on the suggestion that Selby's game is overly cautious. "He gets this stigma all the time about being negative, but he is one of the best scorers there's ever been."

World number 12 Wakelin will now await the winner of Group Four, which is scheduled for day two of the 2026 Champion of Champions, as he looks to build on his best run yet in the Leicester invitational.