Mark Selby with a shock 3–5 defeat to Andrew Pagett in the qualifying rounds of the 2013 Wuxi Classic. The tournament was the first to use a new format that required top-16 players to compete in qualifiers. In minor-ranking tournaments, Selby was runner-up in the Yixing Open, where he lost 1–4 to Joe Perry, and the Rotterdam Open, where he lost 3–4 to Mark Williams. He won the Antwerp Open, defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan 4–3 in the final. In December, in the seventh frame of his UK Championship semi-final against Ricky Walden, Selby compiled snooker's 100th officially recognised maximum break in professional competition.
Mark Selby to the final of the China Open and he took the final three frames against Mark Williams to claim his fourth ranking event title of the season 10–8. No one came close to Selby as he progressed through to the semi-finals of the World Championship, which included a 13–3 thrashing of Marco Fu in the quarter-finals with a session to spare. He next faced Ding Junhui who closed the gap to 16–15, after Selby had been 16–13 ahead. Selby won the 32nd frame to reach his third world final in four years. Selby had an incredible run of winning 12