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Mark Selby wins world snooker championship (Includes interview and first-hand account)

Mark Selby won his third world snooker championship (and his second successive title) by defeating four-times champion John Higgins over two-days. At one stage in the match, Higgins led 10-4. However, the Scottish player made a couple of surprise misses and allowed Selby to regain his foothold in the match. On the second day’s play, Selby proved to be nearly unstoppable.

To reach the final, Selby had to contest a hear fought semi-final with Ding Junhui, a repeat of last year’s final. Selby triumphed 17-15. It was a high quality game during which Ding made four century breaks and Selby two. In the other semi-final, Higgins defeated Barry Hawkins by the more comfortable scoreline of 17 frames to 8, closing out the match with a break of 120.

The final, played across April 30 and May 1, 2017 was referred by Jan Verhaas. The venue was, for the fortieth consecutive year in the 90 year-old tournament, The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The opening four frames were shared and they produced a superb break of 141 from Higgins. Building on this, the Scottish player established a commanding 6-2 lead at the end of the first session.

With the second session Higgins continued his good form and went into a 10-4 lead. Although he made a break of 76, Higgins did not play as well winning four of the first six frames as he had in the first session. The evening’s play became more of a war of attrition than a free-flowing potting contest. Towards the end of the evening’s play both players made errors; however, Selby, with solid efforts of 81 and 121 reduced his arrears to 7-10 overnight.

The third session was all Selby, as the defending champion won six of the seven frames (the session being ended early due to slow play). The play was largely tactical and the standard of play not as good as before, largely a result of the creeping tension, although Selby compiled breaks of 67 and 72. Higgins’ only success came with frame twenty where he made a break of 78. The next frame proved critical; Selby won the 44 minute game and prevented Higgins from building any momentum.

The fourth and final session saw Selby extend his lead to 16-12, showing similar hard match-play. Higgins then found some of his potting form and pulled back to 15-16 behind, aided by breaks of 88 and 111. The closeness of the scores then seemed to inspire Selby and he found his best form for the end, compiling breaks of 131 and 75 to clinch victory by 18 frames to 15.

On winning, Selby received £375,000 ($425,000) in prize money and he retains the top ranking spot for the 116th consecutive week.

The frame scores were (Selby first):

Session 1:
76-34 (76), 7-50, 121-8 (62, 58), 0-141 (141), 40-99 (63), 1-126 (95), 54-59 (58), 33-68

Session 2:
86-0 (86), 8-60, 44-74, 69-22, 1-68, 0-76 (76), 81-9 (81), 121-12 (121), 96-17

Session 3:
76-1, 53-2, 29-107 (78), 63-40, 68-19 (67), 82-0 (58), 72-0 (72)

Session 4:
72-22, 36-74, 76-1 (71), 134-4 (54,70), 34-88 (88), 0-119 (111), 47-75, 132-0 (131), 80-19 (75)

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Written By

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

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