Matthew Selt

{{Infobox snooker player |name =Matthew Selt | Nickname = |image =Matthew Selt at Snooker German Masters (DerHexer) 2015-02-05 05.jpg |caption =Matthew Selt at the 2015 German Masters |birth_date = (1985-03-07) 7 March 1985 |birth_place = | Sport country = England | Professional =2002–2005, 2007– | High ranking =21 | Prize money =[[Pound sterling|[1] | High break =143[1] (2008 UK Championship Qualifiers) | Century break =80[2] | Best finish =Quarter-finals (2011 Australian Goldfields Open, 2012 Australian Goldfields Open, 2015 Players Championship Grand Final, 2015 Australian Goldfields Open, 2015 UK Championship) | Other wins = | World champ = }}

Matthew Selt (born 7 March 1985) is an English professional snooker player originally from Romford and now living in Atherstone and playing out of the Atack snooker Centre in Nuneaton. He qualified for the professional tour by finishing seventh on the Pontin's International Open Series in 2006/2007. Selt played in his first professional final in 2014 at the minor-ranking Lisbon Open, which he lost to Stephen Maguire, and has reached four quarter-finals in full ranking events.

Career

He made an important breakthrough at the start of the 2009/2010 season by reaching the last 32 of the Shanghai Masters by winning four qualifying matches, ending with a 5–4 victory over Steve Davis. There he faced John Higgins, losing 5–2. He also impressed at the Grand Prix, by recovering from 0–4 against Jordan Brown to win 5–4 and going on to beat Jimmy White, Stuart Pettman and Fergal O'Brien to reach the final stages of a tournament for the second time in succession. There he was drawn against Stephen Hendry who beat him 5–2.

2011/2012 season

Matthew Selt at the 2012 Paul Hunter Classic

Selt began the 2011/2012 season ranked 43rd meaning he would have to win two qualifying matches to reach the ranking event main draws.[3] He did this at the first ranking event of the season: the Australian Goldfields Open by beating Adrian Gunnell and Ricky Walden.[4] In the last 32 he played reigning world champion John Higgins and pulled off the biggest result of his career to date by overcoming a deficit of 1–4, to triumph 5–4 and win a televised match for the first time.[5] He then beat Stephen Hendry 5–1 to earn himself his first ranking event quarter-final, where he lost 3–5 to Shaun Murphy.[6] Selt qualified for the main draw of the UK Championship for the first time in 2011 by defeating Mark King 6–4 in the final round of qualifying.[7] His reward was a tie against former world champion Graeme Dott, who beat him 6–1.[8] He failed to qualify for any of the remaining ranking events and finished the season ranked world number 44.[4][9]

2012/2013 season

At the start of the 2012/2013 season Selt reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Goldfields Open for the second consecutive season. He beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Jamie Jones in qualifying and once in Australia he came back from 0–2 and 3–4 down to knock out the defending champion Stuart Bingham 5–4.[10][11] He then defeated Ryan Day 5–3, before losing to Barry Hawkins by the same scoreline in the quarters.[10] Selt struggled after this as he couldn't qualify for eight successive ranking events and only won three matches all year in the eight minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events he entered to finish a lowly 104th on the Order of Merit.[10][12]

He rediscovered his form in World Championship Qualifying by seeing off Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 10–8 to be just one match away from reaching the opening round of the tournament for the first time.[13] Selt played 1997 champion Ken Doherty and at 9–4 ahead he looked to be heading to the Crucible with ease. However, Doherty came back to trail 7–9, and when Selt lost the next frame from a position of 55–0 ahead all the momentum was with the Irishman. The match went into a deciding frame with Selt again building a 55–0 lead and this time hanging on to seal his place in the first round, where he met world number one Mark Selby, losing 4–10.[13][14] He ended the campaign where he started it, ranked world number 44.[15]

2013/2014 season

Selt failed to qualify for the opening four ranking events of the 2013/2014 season, but then whitewashed Chris Norbury 6–0 to reach the first round of the International Championship, where he lost 6–3 to Martin Gould.[16] His best result by far in the minor-ranking European Tour events came at the final tournament, the Gdynia Open as he whitewashed three opponents 4–0 and beat Judd Trump 4–1 in a televised quarter-final, before losing by the same scoreline to Shaun Murphy in the semis. After the event, Selt stated that he had been neglecting his game for the last two years by occasionally practising two or three hours and that he believed his ranking of 50 would be 20 or 30 places higher if he had played to his true ability.[17] He finished 32nd on the European Order of Merit, seven places outside of qualifying for the Finals.[18] His deepest run in a ranking event this season came after this at the China Open when he beat Ryan Day 5–2, before losing 5–2 to Ali Carter in the last 32.[16]

2014/2015 season

Selt progressed through to the semi-finals of the Haining Open, losing 4–1 to Stuart Bingham.[19] His first win at the venue stage of a full ranking event this season came courtesy of a 6–0 whitewash over Hammad Miah at the UK Championship. Selt then knocked out Xiao Guodong and Rory McLeod both 6–4 to face Ronnie O'Sullivan in the fourth round. O'Sullivan made a 147 in the final frame as he won 6–0, with Selt saying afterwards that despite having numerous chances throughout the match he never settled.[20] Selt responded in his next event by winning four matches to reach the quarter-finals of the Lisbon Open and then defeated Judd Trump 4–1 and Barry Hawkins 4–2 to play in his first final in a minor-ranking event.[19] He took the opening frame against Stephen Maguire, but went on to lose 4–2.[21] His first quarter-final in a ranking event this season came at the PTC Grand Final after he eliminated Oliver Lines 4–1 and Chris Wakelin 4–2 and he led Mark Williams 3–1, but could not reach the first semi-final of his career as Williams would knock him out in a final frame decider.[22] Selt's season looked to be ending in disappointment as he trailed Jimmy White 7–2 in the second round of World Championship qualifying. However, he took eight of the nine frames upon the resumption of play and won in the final round 10–8 against Tom Ford.[23] In the first round Selt lost another opening session 7–2 this time against Barry Hawkins. He also went on to be 9–4 behind but then won five frames in a row which included back-to-back centuries and a 94 break. He couldn't win his first match at the Crucible Theatre as he lost the deciding frame.[24] Selt finished a season inside the top 32 in the rankings for the first time in his career as he was the world number 30.[25]

2015/2016 season

In the first round of the 2015 Australian Goldfields Open, Neil Robertson fought back to 4–4 after Selt had been 4–0 up. The deciding frame lasted 55 minutes and Selt took it on the final blue and then edged past Mark Joyce 5–4 to reach the quarter-finals of the event for the third time.[26] He was unable to feature in his first ranking event semi-final as Martin Gould comfortably beat him 5–1.[27] However, Selt rose to a career-high 27th in the world rankings soon afterwards and credited his improvement in play to his coach Chris Henry, his mentor Stephen Hendry, as well as his own personal fitness.[28] He lost 5–4 on the final black to Judd Trump in the second round of the Shanghai Masters.[29] Despite describing his play as pretty terrible, Selt reached the fourth round of the UK Championship and recovered from 3–1 down against Luca Brecel to knock him out 6–4. He also said that his 6–0 loss to Ronnie O'Sullivan a year earlier had improved him as a player. In his first UK quarter-final he was defeated 6–1 by Mark Selby, but the £20,000 in prize money he earned is the biggest of his career so far.[30][31] O'Sullivan beat Selt 3–0 in the semi-finals of the non-ranking Championship League.[32]

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 2001/
02		 2002/
03		 2003/
04		 2004/
05		 2007/
08		 2008/
09		 2009/
10		 2010/
11		 2011/
12		 2012/
13		 2013/
14		 2014/
15		 2015/
16		 2016/
17
Ranking[33][nb 1] UR UR[nb 2] UR[nb 3] UR[nb 3] UR[nb 2] 68 67 51 43 44 44 48 30 25
Ranking tournaments
Australian Goldfields Open Not Held QF QF LQ LQ QF
Shanghai Masters Not Held LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ WR 2R
International Championship Not Held LQ 1R 1R 1R
UK Championship A LQ A A LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ 1R 4R QF
German Masters Not Held LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R A
Welsh Open A LQ A A 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 2R 3R 3R
World Grand Prix[nb 4] A LQ A A LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 1R NR 1R
Players Championship Grand Final[nb 5] Not Held DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ QF 2R
China Open A Not Held A LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 2R 1R 2R
World Championship LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ 1R LQ
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters A LQ LQ A LQ LQ LQ A A A A A A
Championship League Not Held A A A A A A A SF SF
World Grand Prix Not Held 2R R
Variant format tournaments
Six-red World Championship[nb 6] Not Held 2R A A NH A A A SF
Shoot-Out Not Held 1R 2R 2R 3R 1R 1R
Former ranking tournaments
Scottish Open[nb 7] A LQ A Not Held MR Not Held
British Open A LQ A A Not Held
Irish Masters NH LQ A A Not Held
Malta Cup[nb 8] A LQ A A NR Not Held
Northern Ireland Trophy Not Held LQ LQ Not Held
Bahrain Championship Not Held LQ Not Held
Wuxi Classic[nb 9] Not Held Non-Ranking Event LQ LQ 1R NH
Indian Open Not Held LQ 2R NH
Performance Table Legend
LQ lost in the qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)		 QF lost in the quarter-finals
SF lost in the semi-finals F lost in the final W won the tournament
DNQ did not qualify for the tournament A did not participate in the tournament WD withdrew from the tournament
NH / Not Held means an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Event means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Event means an event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Event means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.
  1. ↑ From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. 1 2 New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
  3. 1 2 He was not on the Main Tour.
  4. ↑ The event run under different names as Grand Prix (1992/1993–2000/2001 and 2004/2005–2009/2010), LG Cup (2001/2002–2003/2004), the World Open (2010/2011) and the Haikou World Open (2011/2012–2013/2014)
  5. ↑ The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013)
  6. ↑ The event was called the Six-red Snooker International (2008/2009) and the Six-red World Grand Prix (2009/2010)
  7. ↑ The event was called the Players Championship (2003/2004)
  8. ↑ The event was called the European Open (2001/2002–2003/2004)
  9. ↑ The event was called the Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)

Career finals

Minor-ranking event finals: 1 (1 runner-up)

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score Ref.
Runner-up 1. 2014 Lisbon Open Scotland Maguire, StephenStephen Maguire 2–4 [34]

References

  1. 1 2 "Matthew Selt". CueTracker – Snooker Database. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  2. ↑ "Centuries". Pro Snooker Blog. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  3. ↑ "Rankings after 2011 World Championship" (PDF). worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Matthew Selt". Snooker.org. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  5. ↑ "John Higgins says 'I need to knuckle down' after Australia defeat". The Guardian. 19 July 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  6. ↑ "Australian Open – results and schedule". BBC Sport. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  7. ↑ "Selt beats King to reach UK Championships". World Snooker. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  8. ↑ "Dott wins in opening round". Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  9. ↑ "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  10. 1 2 3 "Matthew Selt 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Australian Open 2012: Stuart Bingham loses to Matthew Selt". BBC Sport. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  12. ↑ "Order of Merit 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  13. 1 2 "Betfair World Championship Qualifiers". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  14. ↑ "Selt Survives Doherty Fight-Back". World Snooker. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  15. ↑ "Official World Snooker Ranking List for the 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  16. 1 2 "Matthew Selt 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  17. ↑ "Snooker ace Matthew Selt delights in win over Judd Trump". Tamworth Herald. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  18. ↑ "European Order of Merit 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  19. 1 2 "Matthew Selt". Snooker.org. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  20. ↑ "Watch: Matt Selt gives on fire Ronnie O'Sullivan maximum respect". Coventry Telegraph. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  21. ↑ "Maguire Is Lisbon Lion". World Snooker. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  22. ↑ "Trump into Last Four in Thailand". World Snooker. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  23. ↑ "Jimmy White suffers more heartbreak as The Whirlwind crashes out in World Snooker Championship qualifying". Daily Mail. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  24. ↑ "Snooker ace Matt Selt's heroic World Championships fightback ends in frustration". Tamworth Herald. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  25. ↑ "World Rankings After 2015 World Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  26. ↑ "Robertson dumped out". Sporting Life. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  27. ↑ "Jones/Higgins/Gould/Maguire Into Semis". World Snooker. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  28. ↑ "Selts Aims to Keep Rankings Rise Going". World Snooker. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  29. ↑ "Trump Beats Selt in Thriller". World Snooker. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  30. ↑ "UK Championship: Matt Selt better for Ronnie O'Sullivan loss". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  31. ↑ "UK Championship: Mark Selby breezes through to set-up titanic semi-final with Neil Robertson". The Press (York). Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  32. ↑ "Matthew Selt 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  33. ↑ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  34. ↑ "Kreativ Dental European Tour Event Five (2014)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 14 December 2014.

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