THE DEFENDING CHAMPION, Mark Selby, lost the longest frame in Crucible history as he crashed out of the World Snooker Championship against China’s Yan Bingtao.

Selby came off worst in an epic 22nd frame lasting 85 minutes and 22 seconds – comfortably eclipsing the previous mark of 79 and a half minutes set by Gary Wilson and Luca Brecel in 2019.

And a subsequent nerveless century by 22-year-old Yan completed a gruelling 13-10 success and sent him into a quarter-final clash with three-times champion Mark Williams.

Selby looked on the bright side, having entered the tournament having battled mental health concerns for much of the season and pulled out of the previous two tournaments in Turkey and Gibraltar.

I’m proud of myself,” said Selby. “After really struggling and not enjoying the game, I came into this tournament not really knowing what to expect.

“I felt as though I was the better player for much of the match. It felt like my game was coming back a bit and I was enjoying it, so it’s positive going forward.”

Yan had built a two-frame lead heading into their concluding session and looked set to make short work of the champion when he won the first two frames in the evening to extend his lead to 11-7.

But Selby surged back to within one frame with consecutive breaks of 86, 117 and 88, setting up the ultimately crucial 22nd frame which Yan finally won after squeezing the black into the middle.

On a record-breaking day at the Crucible, Ronnie O’Sullivan earlier set two new marks after winning the solitary frame he needed to polish off a 13-4 win over Mark Allen and cruise into the last eight.