World Snooker Championship

Mark Selby: a shock

Anthony McGill: a confirmation

Yesterday at the Crucible we had a very interesting match, Defending Reigning Champion Mark Selby, was very confident to break "The Crucible Curse" as no first time champion has had success to defend his crown next year. In the other corner, debutant Anthony McGill was only a mere pretender who looked like "I've already done my show" when he made a Century in the decider against Stephen Maguire in the first Round and was now going to challenge World Number One Selby. Selby also came through a first Round decider, winning a 10-9 thrilling encounter with another debut in Kurt Maflin.

Before this match, I had read a lot of Snooker blogs and sites and no one was saying McGill was going to upset Selby, but opinions started changing when Anthony McGill stormed into a 4-3 early lead and had a chance to be 5-3 at the end of the first session but missed a spotted black and knocked it over the pocket just to Selby pot it and breathe at 4(25)4.

McGill took the first two frames in the second session and managed to go to the last interval 10(25)6 up making a 125 Break on his way.

The last season started with an amazing 68 Break from McGill to shoot down most of Selby's fans hopes down. And things became even harder when Selby just shared next two and saw himself 7(25)12 behind with the Scotsman just one away from a Quarter Final place.

But Selby was might the last one believing he could win as breaks of 57 and 101 closed it to 9-12.

Although Anthony McGill wasn't really touched by the pressure of "get over the line right now" and took advantage from the first real chance he got and made a 82 Break to complete the Biggest win of his life against World Number One and Reigning Champion of the World Mark Selby.

Of course for Selby it's a big disappointment, if you look back he's won this tournament last year and wasn't able to beat two debutants this year not going beyond the Last 16. It's also a bad end of the season for someone who's won three tournaments this year including two Ranking Events, most recent one in the China Open, very last tournament before the Crucible.

But Anthony McGill - who was considered an underdog by many - never shocks me, his form has been superb and he's looking good for the two past seasons now, he's reached the Quarter Final of the UK Championship last November/December giving eventual Champion O`Sullivan a real fight, so it's only a confirmation of his talent, talent which if you are a real Snooker fan and follow it the whole season you already knew. If he's gonna go through the Quarters? who knows, it's gonna be tough against either Murphy or Perry, but he's between the best 8 now and there has to be one champion.

Check draw and times here.

There's a lot of action around the Crucible and we're on Fire on Facebook's Page, so not to lose any of it keep your eyes there!

 Ronnie O`Sullivan plays his Quarter Final first session today at 19:00 against Matthew Stevens over a best of 25, live on BBC Two, Eurosport International, CCTV 5 and others.