Four-time snooker world champion Mark Selby is considering retirement after crashing out at the first round of the world championship 10-6 to qualifier Joe O’Connor on Monday.
Defeat capped a dismal season for Selby, who has slipped to fifth in the world rankings.
“I will take a long time to think about it over the summer,” the 40-year-old said. “Away from snooker I’m happy, then when I come to snooker it’s the opposite. It was pathetic from start to finish.”
Photo: Reuters
O’Connor, who is the only debutant in the field at The Crucible amassed a 7-2 lead during the first session on Sunday and held on for the biggest win of his career despite a rally from one of his snooker heroes.
“I’ll sit down with [my wife] Vicky and see what the options are,” Selby added. “Obviously it will be a big decision but if I do carry on playing, I need help, probably on the mental side of it a little bit more just to go out there and enjoy the game.”
Meanwhile, former world champion Shaun Murphy called criticism of snooker’s fabled Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, as sacrilege after Iran’s Hossein Vafaei described it as smelly.
The start of this year’s World Championship has been overshadowed by verbal pot shots at the iconic venue that has hosted the tournament since 1977.
“Maybe having not grown up in the UK, Hossein’s not as emotionally connected to this tournament as many of the UK players are?” 2005 champion Murphy said. “This is holy ground for snooker players and Hossein should remember that. He said he doesn’t want to come back. Don’t come back.”
Vafaei lost 10-5 in the opening round to former champion Judd Trump, but kicked up quite a stink with his post-match comments, saying the tournament would be better suited to a new venue in Saudi Arabia or China, and saying the Crucible “smells really bad.”
Murphy acknowledged that the Crucible is small with fewer than 1,000 seats, but said it should still continue to host the tournament beyond 2027 when the current contract expires.
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