Mark Selby was a long way from his brilliant best, but did enough to beat Jordan Brown 10-6 and book his place in the second round of the World Snooker Championship.
The three-time world champion was 5-4 ahead going into the second session on Tuesday, and while the scoreline may suggest that he secured a relatively comfortable victory, it was anything but.
There were mistakes from both men throughout the session as the pressure of the Crucible seemed to tell and nerves got to them.
Selby demonstrated plenty of his famous tenacity, scrapping away for a long while in the 13th frame as he looked for a snooker with just pink and black left on the table, but ultimately failing.
The Jester from Leicester did enough, eventually, to get over the line, though. finishing the match with four half-centuries and one century of 119.
In the final frame, Brown needed to clear the colours on their spots to keep the game alive but lost position and had to play safe on the pink. It summed up the nature of the game that Selby fluked that ball to win the match.
‘Obviously happy to win,’ Selby told the BBC. ‘The first round is always the toughest. You don’t feel as though you’re part of the tournament until that first round is out of the way. I’m always a little bit edgy, whoever I’m playing.
‘It could have been better, but I felt that I was close in patches to really playing well. I felt good out there. When I looked like I was going to kick on for a couple of frames, I’d miss a silly ball and lose a bit of concentration.
‘It was difficult out there to concentrate, I’d have two or three frames where I was fully focused and then I’d lose it again.’
Selby admitted that the empty Crucible and the fake crowd noise was difficult to deal with at times.
‘Having no crowd out there, the first session felt a little bit eerie, I played some good shots, one red over the pocket and screwed it back for the blue, something Judd Trump would be proud of and not even a murmur.
‘It was strange, but at the end of the day you have to switch on, it’s not going to change and there’s a tournament to be won.’
Selby has now set up a clash with Noppon Saengkham in the second round, starting on Thursday morning.
As for debutant Brown, he impressed in patches but will probably see this as a missed opportunity to capitalise on an under-par Selby.
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