The first Welsh Open semi-final was suspended after just one frame, with Luca Brecel suffering from a migraine. After a poor break-off from the Belgian, opponent Mark Selby took full advantage with a break of 131.

After the frame, Brecel conferred with his father, the referee and Selby before leaving the table for a break. It soon emerged that the 2023 world champion was suffering from a migraine which had impaired his vision.

After a break of 15 minutes, which saw him take on medication, the match eventually resumed. And there was laughter from both players and fans inside Venue Cymru in Llandudno as Selby also made a poor break-off, giving Brecel a chance to get back into the best-of-11 affair. It was a chance he took with a break of 68 to make it 1-1.

The winner will face the victor of Saturday night's semi-final between Ali Carter and Stephen Maguire. After tumbling down the world rankings over the last 18 months, it is Brecel's first ranking semi-final since he won the world title.

Speaking earlier in the tournament, he told Eurosport: "When I turn up at tournaments now, I really want to go deep. Before, if I wasn't in a really good place, I wanted to go home. Now I want to win the tournament. It's fantastic to be in the mix again."

Brecel beat home favourite Jackson Page 5-2 in the last eight to set up a repeat of the 2023 World final against Selby, who edged a five-hour marathon against John Higgins 5-4 to reach his first Welsh Open semi-final for 13 years.

The Englishman, 41, whose last ranking title saw him defeat Higgins in September’s British Open final, sealed an attritional, low-scoring encounter with the highest break of the match – 84 – in the deciding frame.

Selby established a 2-0 lead but Higgins then won the next three, his momentum not interrupted by a 10-minute delay at 2-1 due to a medical emergency in the auditorium. The next two frames went to Selby and although Higgins forced a decider with a break of 55 the best was yet to come from his opponent.

“It was like torture out there,” said Selby. “We both struggled and brought each other down. It was just a matter of getting over the line. The only positive is it can’t get any worse, I can only improve on that performance.”