Congratulations to Mark Selby, who has today made the 100th maximum break in professional competition, during the opening session of his semi-final with Ricky Walden.
Click below to read how he did it…
Coming in the seventh frame, Mark was able to dispatch the reds without too much drama, taking the obvious problem red in baulk as the 13th red, but the colours would prove to be a different story, with brown and blue close to the brown spot.
Having finished short on the brown, Mark had to play the cue ball around the table to come back for blue, before leaving himself a tricky pink into the corner, with the white close to the blue spot. The roar from the crowd as the pink dropped in however, soon turned to groans as they saw the cue ball finish close to the black cushion, leaving only a difficult black into the left-centre pocket.
With everyone in the arena willing him on, Mark was able to produce a brilliant pot, one of the best blacks that I have ever seen for a 147, to bring the crowd to its feet and earn a well deserved high five from opponent Ricky Walden.
More lucratively, provided that the break is not equalled this weekend, Mark will take the rolling maximum bonus of £55,000, in addition to the tournament high break prize of £4,000.
The break was also the second maximum break officiated by referee Paul Collier, as well as the first at a full-ranking event since that by John Higgins, also here at the Barbican Centre in 2012.