Selby through to final

Those who were expecting O'Sullivan to offer some of the enterprising snooker he has in recent months were disappointed when the former World champion was contained and eventually sapped of his willpower by the current world number one.

Though the first frame took over twenty minutes to really get going, it was 'the Jester from Leicester' who took control with O'Sullivan failing to successfully pot a single ball.

That changed in the second as 'the Rocket' capitalised on a poor safety attempt to power to an 80 and tie the score, which he did again in a re-racked fourth after being edged out 62-50 in frame three.

Following the interval, however, the O'Sullivan unforced errors and loose safety attempts were gradually growing and Selby stuck to his guns to win four frames on the bounce as his own missed shots went unpunished by a clearly-disinterested opponent.

"It was a strange game, we started off well but then in the third frame I missed a red and after that everything went scrappy," Selby told the World Snooker website.

"I had a bit of run of the ball and played decent safety. I did what I had to do. The third frame was important because if he'd gone 2-1 up he could have reeled off a few frames.

"When John Higgins was world number one he won scrappy matches when he didn't play well, and Mark Williams was the same. Everyone goes through bad spells. Maybe when I got to number one I put a bit too much pressure on myself, but I never felt as if I had to go out and make five centuries in a best of nine.

"I just go out to win. If it takes five hours and you have to scrape me off the table then so be it. If I tried to play as fast as Ronnie I'd probably never win a match."

Selby will contest the final with Ding Junhui, who overcame Shaun Murphy in the day's afternoon session, tomorrow at the Newport Centre.