Scottish Open 2020: 'I was rubbish today!' says Mark Selby

ByCarrie Dunn

Updated 09/12/2020 at 18:42 GMT

Defending champion Mark Selby admits his performances in the Scottish Open so far this year have been under par - and he knows he needs to improve if he intends to retain his crown. He struggled for fluency in the win over veteran Nigel Bond and faces Mark Joyce next in the round of 32.

Mark Selby says he will have to improve his performances if he is to successfully defend his Scottish Open crown - describing his display against Nigel Bond in the second round as "rubbish".

"In patches I felt OK when I was hitting the ball but anything long, I couldn't buy a long ball," he told Andy Goldstein in the Eurosport studio afterwards. "Probably some of them ended up in here, I missed them by that far.

"When I got in the balls I felt as though I could score, but long game, a little bit ropey. Going for the long shots, I still fancied potting them, and not once did I think I was offline and missing them by as far as I did."

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He put it down to alignment - just getting his line wrong on his object ball - but added that he was ready to go again against Mark Joyce on Thursday.

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"Another two best-of-seven [matches] potentially, but looking forward to it," he said. "I need to play a little bit better than what I did there to progress in the tournament, but I'm still in the tournament so I can only improve.

"I may not have not made a great defence as far as performances go at the moment but I'm still in the tournament to try and defend!"

Goldstein and pundit Ken Doherty also asked Selby where he ranked the 147 break in terms of sporting difficulty compared to a nine-dart finish or a hole in one.

"I put the 147 at the top in my eyes," he replied. "Darts is basically just nine darts and a 147 is 36 shots consecutively.

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"Hole in one, you speak to golfers who can't really play the game and they've said they've had one or two holes in one, so that's sort of like a little bit of a fluke or gimmick.

"Don't get me wrong, the nine-dart finish is really, really difficult, but I don't play darts that much, and I've done about a few 180s and I can't play. You get the average guy on the street who can't play snooker and he's not going to go out there and knock in a 147."

Selby revealed he was 11 when he scored his first 147 - in practice against a friend.

"I still remember the last black to this day - the black was on its spot and the white was in line with the pink spot tight on the side rail, so high on the black."

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