World number one Mark Selby repelled the brave challenge of qualifier Sam Baird to book his place in the quarter-finals of the World Snooker Championships in Sheffield late on Saturday.

Selby was pushed to the limit by the world number 59, who won four consecutive frames to claw his way back to level before the favourite finally prevailed 13-11 in a late-night thriller.

Selby had looked on course to coast into the last eight when consecutive breaks of 134 and 84 helped him ease into an 11-7 advantage at the start of their evening session.

But on only his second visit to the Crucible, Baird showed no signs of flagging and instead began to threaten to pull off what would have ranked as one of Crucible’s biggest upsets.

Selby said: “I never take anything for granted and I seem to make every match hard work for myself. In patches I felt okay, and in other parts of the game I was very poor.

“At 11-7 I thought I’d done enough to almost get over the line but then my focus went all over the place. (But) I’m still in the tournament and I’ve got a chance to improve.”

Selby will next face either Mark Allen or Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals and he admitted: “No disrespect to Sam, but I’ve got to play a lot better than that.”

Meanwhile, World Snooker confirmed it will bring forward a scheduled replacement of cloth and cushions at the Crucible following complaints by players.

Ali Carter criticised what he called the worst conditions of his career after letting slip a 9-7 overnight lead to lose his second round match 13-11 to Alan McManus earlier last week.