2015 World Championship (Day 7) - Crucible Curse strikes again: Selby loses to McGill

Well boys and girls it happened again! The Crucible curse (which basically translates into a lot of rubbish) stroke tonight in Sheffield, defending champion Mark Selby losing 13-9 to a brilliant Anthony McGill.

Selby and McGill disputed their last two sessions today after being stuck at 4-4 after their first encounter.

And from the very start of the second session it begun to be clear who will hold the upper hand as Ants stormed in and took the first two frames with runs of 44 and 43 to go 6-4 up.

Selby pulled back a frame with a brilliant 120 clearance, but his Scottish opponent took the 12^th frame on the pink to restore the two-frame gap.

The recently crowned China Open champion made an 83 clearance to try and come back at McGill, but "The New Nugget" fired solid breaks of 125, 48 and 54 to end the session 10-6 up. This was looking ominous.

The last session kicked off at exactly 7pm with the same Anthony McGill in full control, a break of 68 taking him just two steps away from a place in the quarter-finals.

Selby, although in a better frame of mind than during the previous session, managed to used a 67 and pull back a frame, but when Anthony hit an 87 as a response and went 12-7 up you knew he was going for the kill.
 
Still, two more frames had to enter into Jester's bag (thanks to breaks of 57 and 101) before McGill wrapped up the most important victory of his career with a break of 87 and win by 13-9.

Gracious in defeat, Selby declared that his opponent outplayed him and in all honestly he probably lost the match in the second session due to a "poor performance", while at the other end of the line McGill couldn't believe what has just happened to him.

So, it seems like the Crucible Curse is "made in Scotland", has red hair and is an awesome snooker player.

Ding Junhui and John Higgins played their second session and after being led 5-3 Ding managed to turn tables against his opponent and end the session at 9-7.

“The Chinese Sensation” had a very promising start taking the first two frames of the session with a top break of 80, but Higgins took the next two using a 55 and a 68.

But when the lads returned from their mid-session interval Ding unleashed his fury and made breaks of 66 and 64 to draw level at seven a piece and a 92 to go ahead for the first time since the beginning of the match.

Higgins has a huge chance to catch up with his rival of the green baize but he missed a long red down on 57, Ding clearing with a 59 and winning the last frame on the black! Talk about an early drama!

Another Scotsman, Graeme Dott felt behind his Last 16 opponent, Stuart Bingham, after two sessions Ballrun leading 11-5.

The first session saw Stuart taking a comfortable lead of 6-2 thanks to breaks of 64, 60, 59, 48 and 100, Dott's "breaks crop" being a bit more humble and consisting in runs of 69 and 68.

As the players returned into the arena, Dotty managed to reduce his deficit by winning the first two frames, but Stuart took the following two to go 8-4 at the interval.

One more frame - that's all Dott could win during the following minutes as Bingham cruised on to go 11-5 up.

Barry Hawkins faced Mark Allen for their first snooker session of the Last 16 round, in the end the Northern Irish player getting a 5-3 lead.

Actually it was Allan the one who first broke the ice, breaks of 63 and 65 guaranteeing him a 2-0 lead, but Hawkins was sure to fight back with breaks of 76 and 51 and draw level.

They went hand-in-hand for the following two frames, but from 3-3 Allen used a top break of 96 to establish a valuable lead of 5-3.

Saturday sees the conclusion of all the above three matches, plus a few more start off!

10pm
Barry Hawkins v. Mark Allen (3-5)
Ding Junhui v. John Higgins (9-7)

2.30pm
Ali Carter v. Neil Robertson
Graeme Dott v. Stuart Bingham (5-11)

7pm
Barry Hawkins v. Mark Allen (last session)
Matthew Stevens v. Ronnie O'Sullivan

*all hours are UK time