Mark Selby believes he played “faultless snooker” after telling himself to relax in his 6-2 win against Stephen Maguire in the first round of the Masters.

Selby lost the first frame but won six of the next seven to set up a quarter-final encounter with Judd Trump on Friday.

It was the 35-year-old’s first victory in a Triple Crown event since 2017 but he knows he can start matches better.

Selby said: “It's great to obviously get off to a good start and perform the way I did.

“First frame I was a little bit edgy, trying too hard again as I have done in the last few [matches].

“Then after the first frame I thought 'go out there and relax, if you lose, at least go out there and enjoy it and lose,' but after that I more or less played faultless snooker.

“I was cursing myself in the chair because I had a chance to win that first frame, all you want to do is get off to a good start and Stephen's a great front-runner, if you let him off the hook too many times he's going to punish you.”

Breaks of 115, 95 and 125 put Selby 3-1 ahead and despite Maguire pulling back in the next, the world number one hit 133 and 96 breaks to control the final three frames.

“It was a strange game because Stephen in patches looked good,” Selby added. “He kept going into the pack and not landing on anything and if he lands on something he probably goes on and gets a frame-winning break himself and it's a totally different match then.

“I practice day in day out really hard, I work hard on my game and obviously I want to win every tournament I play in and sometimes I try too hard.”

Watch the London Masters LIVE on Eurosport and Eurosport Player, with analysis from Jimmy White and Neal Foulds