Mark Selby labels Northern Ireland Open exit 'pathetic' as Alan McManus makes 'as poor as he can play' claim

Mark Selby suffered a disappointing exit from the Northern Ireland Open with a second-round defeat to Jack Lisowski on Wednesday. While Lisowski gained plaudits for his accomplished potting, there were many aspects of Selby's game that he himself and TNT Sports expert Alan McManus felt were lacking. Stream the Northern Ireland Open live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

TNT Sports expert Alan McManus felt Mark Selby played "as poor as he can" in his second-round defeat to Jack Lisowski at the Northern Ireland Open.

The four-time world champion put in a very disappointing performance as he went down 4-2 to Lisowski at Belfast's Waterfront Hall on Wednesday.

Breaks of 61, 103, 51 and 65 sealed an important victory for Lisowski, who faces Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the third round.

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"Mark Selby, unfortunately for him, it was as poor as he can play snooker frankly," McManus said in the TNT Sports studio.

"Got to be honest about that. He will be back, but Jack Lisowski was very good."

Selby struggled to find fluency when among the balls, and was hampered by some critical misses, notably on the black from its spot. That certainly did not escape McManus' attention.

"Blacks off the spot are not something that we associate with Mark Selby missing," McManus added.

"There were three or four of them today, a couple of them were quite basic misses. Granted, the pockets are extremely sharp."

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Video credit: TNT Sports

Selby himself later pulled no punches in his assessment of the match.

"Pathetic, just not good enough. Apart from the last frame, I could have won every single frame," he told the BBC.

"I mean, I don't feel great out there at the moment. I'm working hard on the practice table but just lacking a bit of confidence I suppose.

"Results-wise it's been OK, but feeling-wise on the table the way I've been playing, I've not really been feeling comfortable in what I'm doing.

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Sometimes you go through patches like that, you just have to ride the waves and come out the other side. You just keep going and hopefully it'll turn around."

There had been some positive signs for Selby when he made the semi-finals of both the English Open and British Open last month, but his Belfast exit compounded a difficult couple of weeks, which also saw him knocked out of the Xi'an Grand Prix at the last-64 stage.

The Northern Ireland Open has never been a fruitful event for Selby, whose run to the semi-finals in 2018 remains his best performance in Belfast. He has won the other three Home Nations events.

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Video credit: TNT Sports

"I love the venue," Selby added. "It's one of the best venues we play in, so it's just unfortunate I never seem to do well here.

"Some of the venues we've played at, they've not been great, which obviously affects the conditions, but they were OK out there today, just a little bouncy off the cushions."

Selby is scheduled to return to action against Liu Hongyu at the International Championship next month.

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