Mark Selby has defended his fist pump gesture to the crowd during his shock first round defeat in the Masters despite his opponent later revealing his actions had spurred him on to win.

Ali Carter produced an impressive display as he beat the three times Masters winner 6-4 on the opening night of the Dafabet Masters.

At one stage Carter looked set to go 4-1 up in the match but failed to capitalise on a big lead in the fifth frame. Selby produced a fabulous clearance under pressure to win it and reduce his arrears to 3-2.

When clinching the important fifth frame, Selby gave a fist pump gesture to show the crowd how much it meant to him to win the frame.

Mark Selby. Picture by Monique Limbos

Despite later moving into a 4-3 lead, Selby could not see the job through as Carter won three frames on the spin to book his place in the quarter-finals.

After the match Carter said the fist pump from Selby spurred him on.

The world number 17 said: “It did fire me up, big time. I don’t like any of that. He was looking at all of his followers in the crowd and gave it the fist. That was a little knife in the heart.”

But Selby said after the match that he felt any other player, including Carter himself, would have done the same thing.

The three times world champion said: “It was a big frame. If I was in that position and 3-1 up, I am sure he would have done it to me. It is a big tournament and you see it in other sports, so why not in snooker? It was nothing against Ali, I just knew that if I went 4-1 down I was massively up against it.”

Do you like to see players show their emotion while playing?