Mark Selby ended a fine run by Stuart Carrington to clinch a place in the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals, yesterday.

The world champion made a run of 87 to win the opener. He looked set to double his lead after a contribution of 58 in the second, but Carrington countered to level the scores. Breaks of 120 and 73 helped Selby to claim the next two frames and open a 3-1 lead.

Carrington wasn’t going to go down easily. He made three sizable breaks to come back from 4-2 down against Joe Perry on Wednesday and he hit back at Selby in the fifth frame with a run of 73.

The game became more compact in the closing stages and that suited Selby. Despite losing the seventh frame on the black, he found the remaining two frames he needed to run out a 5-3 winner.

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s first tournament appearance since the World Championship ended as he lost to Michael Holt in the last 16 in the evening session.

The five-time world champion went down 5-2 as Holt won the last four frames in succession with notable breaks of 103, 57, 44 and 64.

Holt told worldsnooker.com: “When you play Ronnie O’Sullivan or the other big players you’ve got to stand up and not let their reputation make you play worse.

“Although Ronnie is better than me, he’s not that much better than me that I can’t win. In a one-off game I know I can win.”

In another match, Stephen Maguire overcame Barry Hawkins to reach the last eight, with a 5-3 victory.