UK Snooker Championship 2021: Judd Trump suffers surprise defeat by Matthew Selt

World number two Judd Trump suffered a surprise 6-3 defeat by Matthew Selt in the third round of the UK Championship.

Tournament favourite Trump began well, taking the opener with a break of 68.

However, Selt grew into the contest and made four half-century breaks to reel off four of the next five frames.

With Trump threatening a fightback, Selt won a pivotal eighth frame on the black to lead 5-3 and sealed victory and a last-16 place with a superb 128 clearance.

Selt's reward for his first win over Trump since the 2016 Championship League is a fourth-round meeting with former World Championship finalist Barry Hawkins.

Meanwhile, David Gilbert came from 3-0 and 5-2 down win a final-frame decider against Northern Ireland's Mark Allen.

Gilbert, 40, who has slipped down to 22nd in the world made breaks of 88, 68 and 63 last frame to triumph 6-5 and will now play Andy Hicks.

But Allen, 35, who is ranked 11 places higher, was left to rue a dreadful miss on a black off its spot when it seemed he was going to close out the match with the score at 5-4.

World number 40 Luca Brecel whitewashed Stephen Maguire 6-0.

The 26-year-old Belgian capitalised on several poor pots and loose safety play by the out-of-sorts Scot to lead 4-0 at the interval.

A fluked red saw him go 5-0 ahead just as Maguire seemed set to win his first frame, and Brecel rounded off his win against the world number eight to book a meeting with Anthony Hamilton, who beat Ricky Walden 6-4.

Trump falls flat

After a tentative opening world number 35 Selt settled into the contest with a break of 63 in the second frame and went on to compile runs of 55, 55 and 60 before knocking in the first century of the match in the final frame.

And as well as looking more assured as the match wore on he also reaped the benefits of winning two important frames, the fourth to draw level at the interval, and the eighth to prevent Trump from levelling at 4-4.

"I started off a bit slow," Selt, 36, told BBC Sport.

"In the first frame I missed a good chance and against a player of Judd's calibre you need to kill every chance you get.

"I managed to get a foothold and get back into it. He made some very basic mistakes and it was great news for me."

Trump, 32, becomes the seventh player in the top 10 of the world rankings to exit the tournament early and he conceded that he rarely felt in the shape claim a first UK crown since 2011.

"I was poor from start to finish," Trump said. "I always struggle here I don't know what the reason is. I felt flat from the start.

"I scraped through the first couple of games. I should have gone 4-4, that was a massive frame. If I could have won that one I think I could have gone on to win."

In Tuesday's other third-round matches Scotland's Anthony McGill won 6-5 against China's Zhou Yuelong and Peter Lines beat fellow Englishman Sam Craigie 6-3.

Iran's Hossein Vafaei won 6-2 against China's Xiao Guodong and Northern Ireland's Jordan Brown progressed with a 6-3 win over Mark Joyce.