Wilson faces uphill battle to keep dream alive

The Kettering cueman beat top-16 stalwarts Joe Perry and Mark Allen to reach the last-eight at Sheffield’s iconic Crucible Theatre for the first time and confirm his ascent to one of the best young players in the world.

However, he trailed 6-2 following Tuesday’s morning session and although that closed to 8-6 at one stage, Selby clinched the final two frames to take a 10-6 lead into Wednesday morning’s final session.

Thirteen is the target for victory meaning Wilson will need a fast start to stand any chance of overhauling the world No.1 – which is exactly what he managed on Tuesday evening.

He got the opening frame of the evening on the board to make it 6-3 and although Selby won the next, the 24-year-old clinched the following two, including an impressive break of 67, before the mid-session interval.

That made it 7-5, a scoreline that he would have bitten your hand off for when the 2014 world champion had raced into a 6-0 lead earlier that morning.

Wilson seemed to have a glorious opportunity to potentially head into Wednesday level or, at worst, two frames behind but Selby had other ideas.

A composed break of 60 gave him a three-frame advantage and although the Northamptonshire man’s classy 87 narrowed that to two, the 32-year-old ended on a high.

He took frame 15 relatively comfortably and then one final half-century – a knock of 54 – ensured he ended the session with the same four-frame lead he started it with, leaving Wilson with an uphill battle to overturn a 10-6 deficit.

Watch the World Championship LIVE on Eurosport, with Colin Murray and analysis from Jimmy White and Ronnie O’Sullivan.