Yan Bingtao at his best to lead reigning champion Mark Selby ahead of final session at World Championship

Yan Bingtao leads Mark Selby 9-7 after edging ahead in Saturday's morning session in a fascinating match. The two could not be separated after Friday's session that saw them tied at 4-4, but Yan looked the sharper player on Saturday as he took advantage of an out of sorts Selby to take the first three frames of the day. Ad/> But Selby bounced with some of his very best snooker and, while Yan stopped the world number two from levelling the match, has left everything to play for ahead of the evening session when the two will play to finish.

World Championship'I had no choice' — Maguire on 'bonkers' drive back to Scotland mid-tournamentAN HOUR AGO Yan grabbed the opened after Selby snookered himself on a black and missed a long red that left the table well open for the underdog to pounce and take the lead again. Yan grabbed frame-ball black leaving Selby needing a snooker, but the defending champion never had the chance to try as Yan cleaned up for his 12th Crucible century. And Yan looked on great form in the second frame of the day too.

He took a 24-point lead before a bad angle on the black drew his break to a close, but Selby gave Yan another look with a poor safety. Yan sank another long red before missing a yellow, but Selby looked off-colour as he went in-off to hand the advantage back to Yan, already 43 points up. Another bullet long red was enough this time to send Yan on his way to a two-frame lead and a break of 40 made sure of that.

A safety exchange opened frame 11 but Yan chanced his arm at a red down the rail and landed with perfect position on the pink. But the Chinese was furious when moments later he lost position on the red, entering into a big safety battle with the world number two. Yan strung together