to Judd Trump, and in defending his title at the China Championship, he lost 3–6 to Shaun Murphy, again in the semi-finals. He defeated David Gilbert 9–1 in the final of the English Open to win the Steve Davis Trophy. The following week, he lost 2–5 to Stuart Bingham in the last 16 of the World Open. In the Champion of Champions, he fell short 2–6 to Mark Allen in the group final. Despite recovering from 1–4 behind to tie at 4–4, he was defeated in the quarter-finals of the Northern Ireland Open by John Higgins. He took more than six minutes to play one of his shots in the seventh frame of this match, leading to criticism from the Eurosport commentator Neal Foulds. He won the Scottish Open in December, beating Jack Lisowski 9–6 in the final to pick up the Stephen Hendry Trophy. Having also won the English Open earlier in the season, he became the first player to win more than one tournament in the Home Nations Series in a single season. At the beginning of 2020, he lost in the first round of the Masters against Ali Carter in January, and failed to qualify at the German Masters later the same month. At the European Masters, he lost in the second round to Barry Hawkins; after losing the first four frames, he staged a comeback to level at 4–4 but then lost the deciding frame. He qualified for the World Grand Prix, where he lost 3–4 to Xiao Guodong in the first round despite making two centuries. In February, Selby reached the quarter-final stage of the last Home Nations event, the Welsh Open, where he was defeated 1–5 by Ronnie O'Sullivan. He also qualified for the Players Championship, based on the one-year ranking list; in the first round, he whitewashed Mark Williams 6–0, but was then knocked out in the quarter-finals by Stephen Maguire in a deciding frame 5–6. In March, he also participated at the Gibraltar Open, but was eliminated in the third round by Lyu Haotian 1–4. After the prolonged break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Selby participated in the 2020 Championship League, going out of the tournament after the first group stage. He qualified for the 2020 Tour Championship ranked third on the one-year ranking list. He beat Yan Bingtao 9–6 in the quarter-finals before being defeated 2–9 by Mark Allen in the