Mark Selby successful, some pundits and fans began to view this nickname with irony. Former world champion and now BBC commentator Dennis Taylor has given him the nickname “Sat Nav Selby” due to his knowledge of angles and ability to lay and escape from snookers. Selby is also a pool player. He was the 2006 WEPF eight-ball pool world champion and was the 2015 Chinese Pool World Championship runner-up. Selby was born in Leicester, England. Malcolm Thorne, the brother of Leicester-born snooker player Willie Thorne, spotted Selby's snooker ability and provided Selby practice so he could practise every day after school. Selby's
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