The Crucible Curse will be one weight on the mind of Mark Selby on Saturday , but the mercurial talents of a debutant capable of ‘ absolutely murdering anybody ’ will be another altogether . The world champion will have to negotiate both if he is to make history in Sheffield . It is one of the quirks of this venue that no first-time winner has retained his title the next year . While that statistical curiosity has added an element of pressure to Selby , so too has the presence of Kurt Maflin , one of four men making their first appearance in the main draw . Mark Selby poses with the trophy after winning the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible in 2014 . What an intriguing figure he is , a Londoner based in Norway who was once a child star but has reached the age of 31 without making any great dents on the game . That appears to be changing with his recent appearance in the China Open semi-final , where he lost 6-3 to Selby . He is one of only 21 players in history to have hit multiple 147 breaks in professional competitions . Maflin ’ s chances against the world No 1 appear slim in the extreme , but six-time runner up Jimmy White told Sportsmail : ‘ He has got one of the biggest talents I have seen in the game . If he produces his game he could absolutely murder anybody . Let us see how he gets on against Selby . He is the one who could produce something magical . He is very exciting and very attacking . If they go in he can beat anyone. ’ Maflin demonstrated those gifts in demolishing Steve Davis 10-1 in qualifying . But Selby ought to be a significantly different proposition , having won two titles this season ahead of his defence , which starts this morning . Selby ( above ) will face tournament debutant Kurt Maflin in the first round on Saturday . Maflin ( above lost to Selby in the semi-final of the World Snooker China Open earlier this month . White has tipped Selby as one of his ‘ three to watch , with Judd Trump and Ronnie O ’ Sullivan , my big favourite ’ . Referring to the hoodoo surrounding first-time winners , Selby said : ‘ It is a curse and it is going to be difficult but I will just try my best . It shows how difficult the tournament is to win . It is in the back of my mind , you can ’ t take that away . Just to win it once as I did last year was a fantastic achievement for me but to win it twice and break the curse would be outstanding . ‘ Even if I wasn ’ t defending champion I ’ d be nervous . It would be wrong if you didn ’ t get butterflies because it is such a great tournament and such a great venue . But hopefully the nerves will inspire me and I ’ ll play better. ’ O ’ Sullivan begins his bid for a sixth world title against debutant Craig Steadman on Tuesday .
mark Selby defeated Kurt ##lby in first round of the World Championnship . Selby is the defending champion but no first - time winner has retained it . se White told that Maflin can beat anyone on his day .