Selby beats China's Yan to reach Snooker Tour Championship semis

LONDON - Three-time world champion Mark Selby beat Chinese hopeful Yan Bingtao 9-6 to reach the semifinals of the Snooker Tour Championship on Tuesday.

Yan, 20, qualified for the eight-man elite tournament after finishing sixth in the one-year world ranking list. He was level with Selby at 4-4 after the match's afternoon session but trailed behind all through the evening session.

"Overall, I'm happy with the way I played," Selby told the World Snooker Tour website. "The first few frames were obviously quite ropey, but after that I felt I played alright considering we've not had that much match practice and aren't that sharp."

37-year-old Selby will face either Shaun Murphy or Mark Allen for a place in the final. The other semifinal will see world No 1 Judd Trump lock horns with Stephen Maguire.

Maguire replaced Ding Junhui for the event in Milton Keynes, as China's top player decided to pull out of the competition to avoid extensive travel from China to the UK.

The 39-year-old Scot ousted Australia's Neil Robertson on Saturday.

The competition, which features the top eight players on the one-year ranking list, is the first ranking tournament since the snooker season was suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this month, the snooker season resumed with the non-ranking Championship League, which was also held at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.

Since June 1, elite and professional sporting events in the UK have been allowed to resume behind closed doors.