Mark Selby v Joe Perry: Defending champion suffers shock early exit at 2018 World Championship

ByEurosport

Updated 22/04/2018 at 07:09 GMT

Defending champion Mark Selby was handed a shock early exit at this year's World Championship, losing 10-4 to Joe Perry at the Crucible Theatre.

Mark Selby was out of sorts (Richard Sellers/PA)

Image credit: PA Sport

Selby, trailed 7-2 after the morning session, and looked in serious trouble after Perry extended his lead to 8-2 but three-time champion Selby rallied, taking the next two.

Perry ousts defending champion Selby

However, runs of 76 and 90 were enough for Perry to make the last 16.

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The world number one - who won the game's biggest prize in 2014, 2016 and 2017 - was never at his best against fellow Englishman Perry, a former Masters finalist who was forced to come through three rounds of qualifying to reach the Sheffield event.

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MORNING SESSION

Perry won the first four frames with breaks of 52, 56 and 63 before world number one Selby had appeared to claw his way back into the best-of-19 frame match with runs of 74 and 92 in the fifth and sixth frames.

Perry storms into 7-2 lead over Selby

But Perry - a World Championship semi-finalist a decade ago - redoubled his efforts in the final three frames of the session with further knocks of 59, 84 and 109 leaving him only three frames from victory when they resume at 7pm on Saturday evening.

In Saturday morning's other match, world number 68 Lyu Haotian has opened up a 6-3 lead against world number 11 Marco Fu of Hong Kong.

The Chinese debutant Haotian made two centuries in establishing a three-frame lead against a figure who has been absent from the tour recently after eye surgery.