Mark Selby has been left with it all to do this evening if he is to avoid a shock early exit in this year’s World Championship.

Mark Selby. Picture by Monique Limbos

The reigning world champion’s title defence has got off to a very bad start as he trails qualifier Joe Perry 7-2 going into this evening’s final session.

The world number one lost all FOUR of the opening frames in the best-of-19frames first round before breaks of 74 and 92 got him back to the match at 4-2..

But Perry came storming back winning three frames on the bounce – finishing the session off with a break of 109 to take a massive five-frame advantage at the interval.

Perry now only needs three more frames to knock out Selby who has won the world title at the Crucible for the past two years.

The scoreline is a major surprise given Selby headed into the tournament with a huge return to form after winning the China Open in convincing style just a fortnight ago.

The match resumes tonight at 7pm.

Elsewhere, 20-year-old Chinese sensation Lyu Haotian has made a bright start to his Crucible debut leading Marco Fu 6-3.

Lyu Haotian. Picture by Monique Limbos

Fu has not played competitively since January and that has shown to some degree with him struggling to settle back to life on the green baize.

Haotian has played impressively and made breaks of 122 and 127 in the process.

The match concludes on Sunday evening.