Selby to retain number one ranking

Mark Selby will retain the world number one ranking ahead of the Betfred World Championship, following his 5-4 victory against Robert Milkins today in the quarter-finals of the Baic Motor China Open.

As I explained earlier in the week, despite not making the trip to Beijing, due to the fact that Selby had a relatively large amount of prize money to drop from his ranking following this tournament, Ronnie O’Sullivan was in pole position to reclaim the sport’s top ranking for the first time since May 2010.

To deny him, Selby had to make it through to the semi-finals in Beijing and with a hard-fought victory against Robert Milkins today, in which he had to win the last two frames to progress, that is exactly what he has done.

The result means that Selby, who was already guaranteed to be seeded first for the Crucible as defending champion, now heads into the Betfred World Championship as the sport’s number one player and well placed to finish there at the end of the season, for what would be the fourth year in a row.