In the early morning of February 22, Beijing time, the snooker European Masters postponed the qualifying round, and the defending champion Selby and Matthew Selter faced off. In the first half, 2-2 draw, the score was glued. In the second half, the world's No. 1 Selby suddenly broke out, blasting a single shot of 128 points and winning two consecutive sets, but in the 7th set, Selby made a low-level mistake when playing blackball, and was saved by Matthew Selter. In the end, after more than 3 hours, Selby began his defensive journey with a bitter battle, eliminating Matthew Serter 5-3.
After the opening, Sert quickly entered the form, and in the first set, he blasted out a single shot to break 113 points to win. Selby played well on the offensive end, shooting consecutive singles of 70 and 79 points to win two consecutive sets and make it 2-1. In the fourth set, Selter took the lead in establishing an advantage, Selby single shot 46 points to overtake the score, but then failed to score a red ball, Serter seized the opportunity to tie the general score.
In the second half, Selby took the lead, winning the fifth set with 69 points and breaking 128 points with a single shot to win the sixth set! The General Managers led 4-2, with Selby taking the lead in the match point. In the seventh set, Selter led 41-0, Selby was made a snooker by the opponent, Selter attacked the far table red ball did not score, Selby scored the red ball in the middle bottom bag, but the black ball bottom bag error was fatal, Matthew Selter seized the opportunity to win the innings, save a match point, and chase the general score to 3-4.
In the eighth set, after multiple shots, Selby finally seized the opportunity, cashed in on the match point, the big score was 5-3, and finally won the postponement qualification match, it was not easy! Ranked No. 1 in the world, Selby has suffered two major embarrassments this season: first, 0 titles in a single season; second, ranking in the top 16 in a single season. It can be seen that Selby is not in good shape at the moment, and the hard-fought promotion of this game also shows this. If the status cannot be improved in time, it will be difficult for Selby to complete the defense of the European Masters this time.