Day 8 of the Williamhill.com UK Championship 2012 in York and today Mark Selby regained his world no.1 spot and joined Shaun Murphy in the final by dispatching Mark Davis in the semi-final.

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After Shaun Murphy's exciting comeback against Ali Carter yesterday it was going to be hard to top that in today's second semi-final at the UK Championship, althought both Mark Selby and Mark Davis definitely had the potential to cause drama.

Unfortunately for the man from Hastings it was Selby who was the dominant force in the first sessio, making a 121 on the way to a 3-0 lead then eventually extending his advantage further to 6-2 with top runs of 81 and 51 going in to the evening session.

Davis needed to come out of the blocks fighting in the evening session and recoup the form that saw him beat former winners John Higgins and Matthew Stevens in previous rounds but he just couldn't muster it today as he rapidly found himself 8-3 down after a break of 76 from two-times Masters champion Selby.

Mark Davis

Veteran Davis, 40, reduced his deficit to 8-4 after winning a scrappy frame but Selby finally managed to get over the line with a break of 41 in the 13th frame to win the match 9-4 and set up a final against Murphy. As an added bonus for the Leicester man he regains his world no.1 status, overthrowing Judd Trump who only manage to hold on to the position for five weeks.

"It was good to get off to a good start today rather than being 3-0 or 4-0 behind", said Selby.

"It's been tough the last few months, but the only way you can get confidence back is by winning matches.

"This week I've enjoyed the challenge, even when I was behind in matches, whereas a little while ago I'd lost that, so it's nice to have that back.

Mark Selby pleased with his victory

Both Selby and Murphy will definitely fancy their chances tomorrow. Selby appears in his first UK Championship final but it's surprisingly 2008 UK Champion Murphy who is the slight outsider with the bookies at 11/10 where as Selby is widely trading as 8/11 favourite.

Personally I think its too tough to call however based on the fact that there is less pressure on Murphy as he has won this title before and he has had an extra day of rest I would make him the slight favourite myself but there is so little to seperate between this two great players.

The final starts tomorrow and is the best of 19 frames. Sessions start at 14.15 and 20.00 GMT with coverage available on BBC2 and EuroSport.