Donaldson right on cue with biggest win

Perth potter defeats world number one Mark Selby at Betway UK Championship

Perth’s Scott Donaldson is gearing up to face China’s Li Hang in the third round of the Betway UK Championship in York tonight after claiming the scalp of defending champion Mark Selby.

The world number one took a 2-0 lead against Donaldson but lost six of the next seven in a 6-3 second-round defeat.

Three-time world champion Selby took the opening frame courtesy of a 68 break and extended his advantage before the 23-year-old halved the deficit with a wonderful run of 88.

Donaldson won the next two before Selby levelled following another halfcentury run.

The Scot maintained his composure and rattled off the last three frames with breaks of 90, 77 and 84 to advance to the third round of the competition for just the second time in his career.

The result is even more remarkable considering Donaldson had won just one match this season, a 6-2 victory over John Astley in the first round in York.

“In terms of the difficulty of my opponent it’s my best win,” Donaldson told worldsnooker.com.

“It has been well documented that I’d not won a game this season but I actually had a lot of cue problems.

“I have to say thanks to Raymond Cohen from Exquisite Cues because he has done a brilliant job with it, and I’ll stop messing about with it now.

“I feel I’m back to where I was last year.

“I got good chances in the balls today and I capitalised on it. It doesn’t always happen like that. On another day I wouldn’t have had a look in.

“I took my chances and that’s what you need to do in any game, regardless of who you are playing.”

Selby praised the young Scot.

He told worldsnooker.com: “I rate Scott as a player: he’s got a good allround game, he scores well as you’ve just seen today.”

Scot John Higgins is through after defeating Cao Yupeng 6-4, while fellow countryman Graeme Dott won a final-frame shoot-out with Dominic Dale.

There were also second-round wins for Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Marco Fu, Neil Robertson, Mark Williams, Yan Bingtao, and Mark King, who saw a 147-break slip from his grasp with just two shots left to play.

Casualties included Alan McManus and Jimmy White.

Scott Donaldson from Perth defeated world number one and defending champion Mark Selby to move into the third round of the Betway UK Championship in York.