Matthew Selt quickly sent an apology to Jimmy Robertson for his behaviour during their World Snooker Championship qualifier. Essex potter Selt took a deciding frame, winning 10-9, to book his spot at the Crucible in heartbreaking fashion for Robertson.

Robertson, the current world No. 31, led 8-3 but could not get over the line and a stunning Selt comeback set up a first-round tie with Xiao Guodong. But the 40-year-old was unable to take pride in his accomplishment, instead apologising to Robertson after being accused of distracting his opponent while at the table.

He told the World Snooker Tour: “I have to apologise and say sorry to Jimmy. He said that I was distracting him and putting him off. So this win, there is no good feeling whatsoever towards it.”

Selt later added: “My emotions are pretty numb, to be honest. Jimmy pulled me to one side after one of the frames and had a word. He said: ‘What are you doing? You’re basically putting me off.’ Which I obviously wasn’t trying to do, but obviously got to him.

“I feel genuinely gutted, to be honest. I’m happy to win but not to the point where my actions may have contributed towards his declining performance. That’s sport, I suppose. I wasn’t doing anything completely out of order. But my feeling is pretty flatline and I just want to send my apologies to Jimmy.”

Selt described Robertson as one of his closest friends on the tour and explained that he would reach out to him the following day. But the 2019 Indian Open champion claimed that he would never intentionally put off a rival and only spoke out loud when he was at the table, not his opponent.

“I do what I do all the time, commentate on my shots,” Selt continued. “If a ball is going towards the hole, which it did on numerous occasions in this match, I’d say: ‘Oh there’s another one.’ I never said anything after the balls came to rest, not deliberately trying to put him off.

“I show my emotions. I’m not doing it to my opponent, especially someone who I’ve classed as a really good friend since the age of 13. I don’t know how he’s going to feel, but I feel pretty c***.

“I’ve not done anything when Jimmy’s at the table or anything like that. Maybe I can rein it in a little bit, but then again I didn’t really want to. That’s how I play and that’s how I am. It’s an unfortunate circumstance because Jimmy is one of my closest friends on the tour.”