This scenario would have been impossible had Selby's pre-Christmas form rolled over into the New year. He was playing so poorly that he didn’t even qualify for the UK Championship.

2006 has certainly seen a vast improvement from the 22-year-old. After negotiating the penultimate qualifying round of the World Championship, he qualified for the final stages of the Welsh Open, where he went on to beat both Neil Robertson and Stephen Maguire. Robertson led 3-0 but spent most of the next five frames in his chair.

Selby lost to the eventual champion, Stephen Lee, in the next round but he took his confidence to the final qualifying stage of the world championship. Despite seeing his opponent Robert Milkins knock in a superb 147, the young lad from Leicestershire remained cool and ran out an easy 10-4 winner.

He is set to play this season's form player John Higgins in a repeat of last year's first round, when Selby lost 10-5.

There's no shortage of talent, as his appearance in the Scottish Open final of 2003 testifies, so he should be able to run Higgins a little closer this time around.

Prediction: First-round exit