Mark Selby has booked his place in the final of the China Championship after he claimed a 6-4 victory over Zhao Xintong on Saturday.

The world number one is playing in just his second ranking event of the season but after seeing off the likes of Yuan Sijun and Hossein Vafaei to reach the last four, he managed to end Chinese involvement in the tournament by disposing of Zhao.

The two players were locked together at 4-4 and Zhao would have fancied his chances of making it through to a first ranking event final, but Selby showed his quality to win the next two frames and seal his place in the final of a ranking event for the first time since April. The 35-year-old recorded five half-century breaks during the match, with his best knock coming in the third frame when he hit 82.

Selby will now face a familiar foe in Sunday’s final at the Guangzhou Tianhe Sports Centre as he will take on Scotland’s John Higgins, who booked his place in the final earlier on Saturday with a 6-3 victory over Lyu Haotian.

Higgins has won the last two meetings between the two players although they were both in best-of-five frame matches and it is Selby who claimed glory the last time the two players met in the final of an event after he secured an 18-15 victory in the 2017 World Championship final.