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.
2016 World Snooker Championship frames were shared until Selby won the final two frames to win the match 17–15. The 32nd frame also lasted more than an hour. Ding Junhui was the first qualifier to contest the final since Judd Trump was beaten by John Higgins in 2011. The Chinese player also became the first Asian finalist at the Crucible, and the match drew a peak television audience of over 42 million in China on CCTV-5. In the first session of the final, Mark Selby took a 6–0 lead, before Ding won the last two frames of the session to leave Selby 6–2 ahead.