It was absurdly good stuff from the Jester from Leicester on Thursday night as he knocked in breaks of 65, 91, 81, 105 and 59 before coming from behind in the final frame to win it on the black.
O’Sullivan may not have been at his best, but he had very little opportunity to be, with Selby dominating the table with a masterclass of scoring.
The 40-year-old was disappointing in an early defeat at the Welsh Open last week and then started his opening round game against Barry Hawkins poorly this week in Telford.
However, after the interval he surged to an impressive win over the Hawk and then whitewashed the Rocket in similar style.
‘To beat Ronnie in any tournament, any scoreline is a great victory. To beat him in the way I did, the way I scored, safety was good, long game was good,’ Selby said on ITV4.
‘Very, very pleased. The back end of the game against Hawkins I felt like i’d got a bit of confidence. I was striking the ball a lot better, seeing the shots a lot better, being a bit more positive. I just managed to carry that on into today’s game.’
Selby has not won a title yet this season and admits that when he is struggling for results he tends to change things about his game, changes which are not always helpful.
The four-time world champion believes the tinkering will be at an end now he has proved he is playing well in spectacular fashion.
‘The biggest thing is for me, when I’m not winning I’m a tinkerer and I try and tweak tings,’ he said. ‘Those two performances there after the interval against Barry and against Ronnie have proved to me that what I’m doing now I just need to carry on doing, win or lose.
‘That’s the biggest thing for me, so I can put that to bed, I can just go out there and play. The game’s hard enough without thinking of how to play, which is how I’ve been for weeks.
‘I felt happy with my game, I felt calm. It’s a huge game, if you can’t get up for matches like that then you may as well put your cue away. I felt calm, I felt confident that I could win, which is a big thing against Ronnie because if you don’t, more often than not the score line will be the other way.
‘It was more or less faultless. I think I missed two balls in the whole match, more or less.’
Next up for Selby is either John Higgins or Zhang Anda in the semi-finals, saying of their upcoming quarter-final: ‘Obviously John’s a great player, we’ve had some great matches.
‘Anda this season has been phenomenal, so that game could go either way, obviously John starts favourite.’
Zhang and Higgins meet at 1pm on Friday before the first semi-final between Ali Carter and Mark Allen at 7pm.
MORE : Mark Selby whitewashes Ronnie O’Sullivan in Players Championship masterclass
MORE : Mark Selby fired up for Ronnie O’Sullivan showdown at Players Championship
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