Turkish Masters 2022 - Matthew Selt halts Ding Junhui charge to book place in final in Antalya

Matthew Selt held his nerve to advance to the second ranking final of his career when beating Ding Junhui 6-5 in the semi-finals of the Turkish Masters. Selt, who won the Indian Open in 2019, had spoken about looking to translate his form on the practice table to the main stage.

Ad/> Arguably his most recent claim to fame was when beating Stephen Hendry in the legendary’s Scot’s comeback appearance — but he is now one match away from being the inaugural winner of the Turkish Masters. Welsh OpenDing 'deserves' to win World Championship — O'Sullivan03/03/2022 AT 16:47 The opener could have gone either way, but Selt got fortunate — which was a theme of the match — when laying a snooker on the final red after missing a pot.

It handed him a tactical advantage and a couple of shots later he drained the red and cleared the colours to move in front Ding knocked in a couple of excellent pots in the first and did so again at the start of the second, but he failed to drop on a colour and Selt won a safety exchange before opening up a two-frame cushion thanks to a run of 40. The third proved to be a war of attrition, as Ding knocked in the six colours to force a re-spot on the black.

Selt got the first crack after a lengthy safety battle, and he cued a long-range pot to the bottom left superbly to make it three frames on the spin. The worst I have played in 10 years — Trump O'Sullivan to face Woollaston at Gibraltar Open Ding, who came into the semi-finals having played the best snooker of anyone, was under the pump but got on the board at the interval courtesy of a fine break of 97.

Prior to the interval, Selt’s misses either ran safe or were not punished. That shifted in the fifth as Ding made runs of 38 and 60 off the back of