Third world crown for Selby after great comeback
Mark Selby won his third Betfred World Championship crown since 2014 by beating John Higgins 18-15 in the final, becoming only the fourth player to successfully defend the title.
Selby came from 10-4 down to win 14 of the last 19 frames against four-time champion Higgins.
Having lifted the trophy in 2014 and 2016, Leicester’s 33year-old Selby follows Steve Davis (1983-4 and 1987-9), Stephen Hendry (1992-96) and Ronnie O’Sullivan (2012-13) as the only players to win back to back titles in the Crucible era, which began in 1977.
Scotland’s Higgins, at 41 the oldest world finalist in 35 years, dominated the early exchanges on Sunday and at 10-4 looked to be cruising to a fifth world crown, which would have equalled O’Sullivan’s tally. But Higgins faded through the key part of the battle. He made an impressive late rally but in the end it was not enough.
He became the fifth player to win three world titles at the Crucible, after Hendry (7), Davis (6), O’Sullivan (5) and Higgins (4)
He banked the biggest prize in snooker history, £375,000
He smashed Hendry’s longstanding record of £740,000 for the most prize money earned in a single season. Selby has won £932,000 in 2016/17
He equalled the record of five ranking events won in a single season, set by Hendry and Ding Junhui
He won his 12th career ranking title, bringing him equal sixth on the all-time list alongside Neil Robertson and Ding
He captured his eighth Triple Crown title having won three Masters and two UK Championships
He became the sixth player to win the World and UK titles in the same season after Davis, Hendry, O’Sullivan, Higgins and Mark Williams
He took back to back ranking titles for the first time in his career and became the first player to win the China Open and World Championship consecutively
“It’s a fantastic feeling,” said a jubilant Selby. “I was confident coming here because of the season I’d had. I was just taking one frame at a time. When I was 10-4 down yesterday I thought there’s no way in the world I was going to come back from that, I was trying to make it respectable. At one stage I was thinking I could lose with a session to spare.
“To get out 10-7, it felt like I was leading. I don’t know how I managed to win those three frames, because before that I was shattered. My game was all over the place, missing ball after ball, making it easy for John. The harder I was trying the worse it got. I managed to nick those three frames and that gave me confidence. I think John went to bed that night thinking he’d let one go.
“It is such a hard tournament to win physically and mentally. Snooker is one of the toughest sports in the world. There’s only four players that have ever defended it and you look at the greats who have played the game.
“I respect John as much as anyone in the game, he’s a great guy, a fantastic player, one of the all-time greats. He’s played as good as anyone this season.”
Wishaw’s Higgins collected a runner-up prize of £160,000 and moves up to number two in the world. He was quick to pay tribute to Selby.
“I think Mark will add to that, whether it’s one, two, three or four,” said Higgins, winning of 28 ranking titles. “He looks as though he could be the challenger to Stephen Hendry’s seven world titles. He’s just granite and really tough to play against, so I take my hat off to him. It’s up to the likes of Robertson, Trump and Ding to challenge him.”