Mark Selby of both the Masters and Welsh Open to Ronnie O'Sullivan, but won the Gdynia Open with a 4–1 victory over Martin Gould. Before the World Championship Selby withdrew from the PTC Finals and China Open due to personal reasons. He beat Robert Milkins 10–6, Sam Baird 13–11 and Kyren Wilson 13–8 to face Marco Fu in the semi-finals. Selby drew level at 12–12 thanks to winning a 76-minute frame, the longest in Crucible history and went on to win 17–15 with an excellent snooker on the brown in the final frame. He took a 6–0 lead over Ding Junhui in
2014 World Snooker Championship two frames he made breaks of 94 and 92, narrowly missing his 100th century of the season. Barry Hawkins met Ricky Walden in a repeat of the previous year's semi-final. Hawkins defeated Walden again, this time 13–11, to reach his second Crucible quarter-final. Mark Selby defeated two-time runner-up Ali Carter 13–9. Selby won eight of the second session's nine frames against Alan McManus, after they could only finish seven frames in the first session, and went on to win the match 13–5. Having trailed 2-0 and needing three snookers in the third frame, O'Sullivan won 13 of the last 14