Fu, what a torture for fans

One hour, 17 minutes and 31 seconds. That's how long it took for Mark Selby to book his place in the semi-finals of the Maplin UK Championships at the Telford International Centre - and win the longest televised frame in snooker history.

The marathon frame was enough for the 'Jester from Leicester' to beat Hong Kong's Marco Fu and set up a clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan in tomorrow's second semi-final.

It eclipses the previous record holder - the 74-minute energy-sapper between Peter Ebdon and Graeme Dott in the 2006 World championship final.

But Selby and Fu can take some consolation as it still falls some way short of the overall record holder - the incredible 93-minute frame played between Canada's Cliff Thorburn and Ireland's Stephen O'Connor in the Regal Welsh Championships in 1994.

And the result was a relief for Selby, who had led 8-5 before Fu started to eat into his lead.

"From 8-5 I didn't have any great chances to win 9-5," said Selby. "But luckily I just managed to fall over the line. I'm chuffed to bits.

"I always knew I was going to break some records in snooker, but that's the type of record I don't want to be breaking.

Meanwhile, O'Sullivan was in masterful form as he thrashed Jamie Cope, who had beaten reigning world champion John Higgins earlier in the week.

O'Sullivan took less than 27 minutes to get the three frames he needed last night - and admitted he was feeling as good as at any point in his career.

"I used to play like that all the time when I was a kid and, for some reason, something went wrong," he added.

"I've been trying to find that form ever since and I've stumbled upon something, I showed glimpses of my old form.

"It reminded me of how I used to play when I was 12, 13, 14, 15 and first playing black ball. I just hope I can keep it up."