The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsWorld number one Mark Selby crashed out of the UK Championships as Neil Robertson played some of his best snooker to win 6-0.
The score doesn’t really do the Jester from Leicester justice as he did perform well at times during the match. He made 50-plus breaks in the first two frames but Robertson was punishing when he needed to be; taking advantage of any error Selby made to snatch both frames.
Both players are renowned for making outstanding comebacks in matches and the Thunder from Down Under demonstrated this ability, fighting back in frames on a number of occasions.
Robertson took the third frame fairly comfortably with a break of 68 but the fourth was much more even. It was the Australian that came out on top once again, showing his resilience and clinical snooker to win the frame. He even admitted the 4-0 scoreline wasn’t completely justified as it could have been 2-2.
Just as Selby looked like he was going to get a frame on the board, Robertson fought back once again from a battle of safety play. Against a player with one of the best safety games in the sport this was impressive from Robertson as he won the battle and cleared up to take the fifth frame.
It became more frantic from Selby in the sixth and as he knew it could have been the final frame of the match, the Leicester man turned to long pots. One miss was enough for Robertson to take his chance and after his performance in the previous five frames; it was never really in doubt. The Australian won the match on the black to set up a final against Liang Wenbo.
Although the result was disappointing for Selby and he may criticise aspects of his own game, Robertson was in such good form that he could have beaten any player on the day.
