Mark Selby is in with a chance to reach the semi-finals of the China Championship but will have to overcome the man who beat Ding Junhui.

Yuan Sijun is only 18-years-old but caused arguably the shock of the tournament so far when he beat Ding 5-4 in the second round. He followed that up with a 5-3 victory over Mark King and now faces Selby for a place in the last four in Guangzhou.

Selby’s route to the last eight has been comfortable without him showing the form that has taken him to three world titles. He beat the Thai Sunny Akani 5-3 in the first round, Chang Bingyu 5-1 in the second and the Iranian player Hossein Vafaei in the third. In that game at least he started to show some of the form he is capable of, including a break of 108 but will be wary of the threat posed by Yuan Sijun.

The youngster first made an impression in the sport back in 2016, aged just 15 when he beat world number 13 Martin Gould 5-0 in the first round of that year’s China Open before losing to Graeme Dott. Reaching the last eight this week is his best ranking finish so far but, now ranked 70 in the world, he will be hoping to get further and victory over Selby will undoubtedly be the biggest win of his career so far.

The quarter-final between the pair is the best of nine frames, the semi-finals become the best of 11 while the final is the first to 10.

The China Championship first came onto the scene as a non-ranking event in 2016, John Higgins beating Stuart Bingham in the final. It became a ranking event last year and the Belgian Luca Brecel won the title, beating Shaun Murphy 10-5.

Mark Selby is 1.25 to win the quarter-final with Yuan Sijun 3.80. The other tie in that half of the draw sees Barry Hawkins at 1.44 to beat Zhao Xintong who is 2.63.