World Snooker Championship: Mark Selby and Marco Fu set longest frame record

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Mark Selby is tied 12-12 with Marco Fu after the longest frame in World Championship history.

It took Selby, the 2014 champion, 76 minutes and 11 seconds to win the final frame of the morning session in the semi-final at Sheffield's Crucible.

The previous longest frame of 74 minutes and 58 seconds was set by Mark King and Stephen Maguire in 2009.

England's Selby and Hong Kong's Fu will play their best-of-33-frame match to a conclusion from 19:00 BST on Saturday.

In the other semi-final, China's Ding Junhui holds a 14-10 lead over Scotland's Alan McManus when their final session begins this afternoon.

World number one Selby was way below his best but took a scrappy opener and scored a century to win the first two frames and lead 10-8.

Fu was only marginally better but did score a fine ton on his way to winning four of the next five, before Selby won a 76-minute final frame.

Record-breaking tedium

The thrilling Ding v McManus match broke numerous century records on Friday.

And while Selby and Fu provided very little quality, it did at least enter the record books for the longest World Championship match in 40 years at the Crucible.

A mind-numbing finale started well enough with Leicester's Selby securing an untidy opener and scoring his first century of the match in winning frame two.

Selby's 125, to take his lead to 10-8 - and Fu's 108 that followed two frames later to level the scores once again - were a rare show of quality in a session that was bumbling and dreary for the most part.

In between the two tons, Selby should have wrapped up the session's third frame, but lost position on the blue, allowing Fu to pull back to 10-9 by potting the final three colours - his highest break of the frame.

Chances continued to be spurned until Fu, a semi-finalist in 2006, finally found some form to compile successive half-centuries for a 12-11 advantage.

But a typically tenacious Selby once again managed to overcome his struggles to round off a forgettable session by taking a titanic frame for a 12-12 interval scoreline.

John Virgo, BBC commentator: "It's been hard work. Both players have been struggling and are a little bit out of touch. It seems that one player drags another down. There have been lots of chances - often three or four a frame but they have just not been taking them.

"They are sparring and sparring. If one of them raised their game, they could run away with it, but there was no sign of it until Marco improved at the end. It's worrying times for Mark Selby."