British snooker star walks out during Saudi match with £500k at stake

Snooker star Matthew Selt made a dramatic exit from the Saudi Arabia Masters tournament mid-match on Tuesday, leaving viewers and his opponent, Chinese player Pang Junxu, in shock.

Ranked 33rd in the world, Selt was trailing slightly with a score of 4-3 (1-10) against the world's 28th-ranked Junxu when he missed an apparently straightforward shot into the bottom-right pocket during the seventh frame. In a moment of clear frustration, Selt knocked a red ball with his hand before abruptly leaving the table without completing the frame.

Instead of recovering from the error to continue the match, the 39-year-old Englishman exchanged a few words with the referee, then collected his things and headed for the door. The footage captured Junxu looking on as Selt approached to shake hands, after which Selt quickly exited the venue.

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This unexpected turn of events came shortly after Selt had shared that he was playing with a cue that had broken in transit to Riyadh, which might shed light on his sudden withdrawal from the game.

"It snapped in two," Selt had disclosed prior to the tournament, according to the Express. "I had some cues sent from back home and one from Thailand but I found a local carpenter here who has filed some of the wood away and used some extremely strong adhesive to put it back together, so I'm going to use it. I played with it for a few hours earlier. It looks terrible, but the balls are going in the direction they were going in before it broke.

"Hopefully that will keep happening