Zhang Anda battles past Mark Selby in epic Players Championship semi to set up final with Mark Allen

Zhang Anda won an exhausting, 6-5 five-hour epic in the Players Championship to set up a final with Mark Allen on Sunday in Telford.

Zhang started brightly as he took the first frame 135-0, courtesy in large part of a break of 129 that saw him clear the table.

He took his chance at the second frame with a half-century break which was enough to go two clear, missing a cut on a red to the bottom left that never looked quite on.

The two scrapped early on in the third for an advantage but after scoring just five, Selby found himself watching Zhang build a nice break of 69 to move into a 3-0 lead.

Then an 84 without response from the Chinese player meant that Selby had barely got a look-in at the table since the start of the encounter, and in the best of 11 format there was little room left for error for the former world No. 1.

After four frames and more than an hour’s play, Selby had potted a single ball, and Zhang had a 96% long pot success rate.

Selby cracked a wry smile when he managed his second pot of the game when Zhang missed at 56-0 up.

He opened up the reds beautifully to give him a chance of a comeback, however unlikely, and he produced a nerveless half century to grab hold of a chance.

In the next, Selby found himself snookered early on but found an opening and built a fluent 85 break that left him trailing by two frames, and put the pressure on his opponent for the first time with an excellent long red.

An even better effort gave him a chance to make it three frames on the bounce and he found himself 62-8 up but he missed on frame ball, allowing Zhang back in but needing to develop three awkward reds remaining against the cushion, and Selby returned to move just a frame from parity.

At 4-3 up, Zhang missed a relatively easy red to the bottom-right when he attempted to do too much with a cue ball, and gave Selby a chance but he fouled.

A seesaw eighth frame saw Zhang come to the table 22-40 behind, with three reds against the cushion and both players looking to avoid giving their rival an easy way back into break-building. It was Selby’s miss that allowed Zhang to make his lowest frame-winning break of the game so far, and he moved to just one frame from victory.

Zhang was 16-1 up when he missed a straightforward red to give Selby the chance to get back in with a century break – his first of the match – of 113 to reduce the deficit once more.

In the following frame the reds were soon splayed up the top end of the table and Selby began by potting a tough red into the top-left. A miss on a red to the middle pocket put Zhang back in 51-3 behind, with 59 remaining on the table and leaving little margin for error.

He sunk one red and bravely attempted to develop the two reds in the process, and after a brief return from Selby he was left with a long brown to pot, which he secured only to end up inches from the blue, which he cut a fraction too heavy to give Selby the leveller at 5-5.

With the match past five hours, Zhang made his highest break since frame five with 50, and with no obvious options on the table, he sent the white ball high up the table to leave Selby with a sniff.

However Selby was unable to seize his final chance of the game and Zhang finally got it over the line.