Higgins surges clear

Selby, in just his third Crucible appearance, was level at 2-2 with Higgins before the 1998 champion took 10 of the next 12 frames to open up an overwhelming lead in the race to 18 frames.

Higgins, who last reached the final in 2001 when he was beaten by Ronnie O'Sullivan, took the first two frames before Selby levelled at the mid-session interval thanks to a gutsy break of 67 in the fourth.

The Leicester youngster took the lead for the first time after the interval with a 116 break, his 11th ton of the tournament, but Higgins responded with a break of 97 of his own to level with the sixth before edging the two tight final frames to open a 5-3 gap at the end of the afternoon.

Higgins - who, for the first time since 2000, will end the season as world number one - made a super start to the evening session, breaks of 75 and 70 clinching the first two frames to move in to a 7-3 lead.

Selby looked to be growing increasingly despondent, and it was easy to sympathise as fortune continued to smile on Higgins.

First, as the 23-year-old looked set to get amongst the balls in the 11th, he ran out of position after suffering a horrendous kick on the blue - allowing Higgins to step in and win the frame with a classy 100.

And in the 12th frame, Higgins fluked an outrageous red before setting a difficult snooker behind the green; Selby failed to get safe, and Higgins opened up a 9-3 lead at the mid-session interval with a clearance of 47.

It looked as though Higgins would move seven frames ahead when he chalked up 58 in the first frame back after the break, but Selby hung in and earned his reward when the Scot failed to get safe from a pickle of a snooker and Selby stepped in to cut the score to 9-4.

Knocks of 36 and 40 took the gap up to six, and a break of 53 went a long way to deciding a 45 minutes-long 15th in Higgins' favour, although Selby hung on for grim death until missing the final blue in to the middle.

And a century break of 106 in the final frame of the evening put a gloss on Higgins' day, although the scoreline hardly does justice to Selby, thankfully already assured of his place in next season's top 16 thanks to his heroics earlier in the tournament.

The best-of-35-frames final, which is worth £220,000 to the winner, plays to a finish on Monday.