Matt Selt is one of the more charismatic player on the tour and he’s not one for pulling any punches when it comes to how he feels on snooker matters.
The good friend of Stephen Hendry is striving for consistency on the World Snooker Tour and is currently ranked 37 in the world.
Being outside of the top 32 means that he will largely face better players in earlier rounds of the tournaments and he will be hoping to improve his current form.
Now, in an interview, he’s been discussing who he believes is the best player outside of the bracket below him – the top 64 in the world.
Matt Selt picks the best snooker player outside the top 64
It’s fair to say that the game of snooker is so competitive in the modern era that there are a lot of decent players outside of the top 64.
How the tour is consituted it means a host of qualifiers for players outside of the top 64 bracket before they even make the main venue for most of the tournaments.
Marco Fu is a player who has a remarkable pedigree as a player but in recent years has struggled with a number of issues – not least his eyesight.
The Hong Kong stalwart was forced to have surgery and missed months of action – with his career threatened as a result.
Fu is now at 68th in the world and Selt believes he’s still a very dangerous player on the tour.
He told The Snooker Club podcast: “Without a shadow of a doubt (he’s still a dangerous player). He’s a class act. A very classy operator if he’s practising and preparing back at home.
“Absolutely, he’s the best player outside of the top 64, without a shadow of a doubt.”
Fu can be a force in snooker once again
Never rule out a player with the level of pedigree that Fu has and with a good run of draws he could start to climb the rankings.
Fu boasts three rankings titles to his name and he’s also won a non-ranking title during his career too.
The experienced performer has reached the semi-final of the World Snooker Championships before, losing a deciding frame to Peter Ebdon in 2006.
He reached the same stage again in 2016, beating Ebden, Anthony McGill and Barry Hawkins before losing to Mark Selby.
Fu didn’t feature in the qualifiers this time around and he’s having to choose his events carefully at the moment.
Still, Fu does look to have the appetite back to dedicate his life to playing snooker again and that can only bode well.
With five career 147s to his name and on his day he’s capable of beating the top players.
Of late those days have been few and far between but it will be fascinating to see if he can push towards the top 32 once again this season.