Wilson faces uphill battle to keep dream alive

Kyren Wilson has emerged as one of snooker's new superstars over the past week but his Betfred World Championship hopes are hanging by a thread as he failed to narrow his deficit against Mark Selby on Tuesday evening.

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.