Selby reached the final of the 2007 World Championship, where he was defeated 13–18 by Higgins. He beat Stephen Lee 10–7 in the first round, after winning eight successive from 0–5 behind to lead 8–5. He defeated former World Champion Peter Ebdon 13–8 in the second round, with five centuries (three of them consecutive) to reach the quarter-finals, where he beat Ali Carter 13–12, from 11–8 ahead and 11–12 behind, in a third-round match that lasted well over nine hours. He won his semi-final match 17–16 against Shaun Murphy, after trailing 14–16, in another deciding frame that he took with a 64 break. John Higgins led 12–4 after the second session of the final, but Selby won all six frames played in the third session on Monday afternoon before time ran out due to the length of the frames; he was therefore only 10–12 behind entering the final session, and closed to within one frame at 13–14 before eventually losing the match.