Mark Selby has repeated his success in 2014 by winning his second world snooker championship. Selby was often hard, sometimes fluent, and very tough. In the final Selby defeated the first player from Asia to reach the final – Ding Junhui – was the score of 18 frames to 14. In winning Selby becomes only the thirteenth player to win the world title more than once, with the tournament dating back to 1927.
As Digital Journal reported earlier, Selby opened up magnificently to win the first six frames of the match. In the opening games Selby displayed a fluency in his cueing that had been missing earlier in the tournament. Selby took the opening frame with a clearance of 91, After clinching the second frame on the black, Selby then took the third frame with a break of 76 and secured the fourth frame with a superb break of 120. He followed this with a break of 70 and moved 6-0 ahead. Ding Junhui managed to scramble together few pots and secure the last two frames.
For the second session, Ding started much more strongly and closed to 5-7 behind, aided by breaks of 103, 89 and 76. Ding began to show the form he displayed in the semi-final, where made a record equaling seven match century breaks.
At this juncture, the match slowed down and it took Selby to after midnight to close out the session 10-7. Here Selby showed what a tough match player he can be.
With the third session the opening few frames were shared out, until Selby began to pull head largely due to his second match century, compiling a break of 126. At the end of the third session, Selby was 14-11 ahead.
Into the fourth session, Selby won the first frame without Ding potting a ball (103-0), which was helped by a break of 57. The second frame of the session was closer, but Selby took this as well on the black after Ding had missed a golden opportunity, stalling on a break of 60.
Undeterred Ding won the next two frames to nil, compiling breaks of 73 and 70. This took the match score to 16-13 in Selby’s favor. Ding then pulled another frame back, this time making a sublime break of 103. To stem the tide, Selby tightened up his safety play and the next frame became a more tactical affair. Clinching this, the match moved into what would be the final frame.
World champion and world number one, Mark Selby, aged 32, hails from Leicester, England. With his win the snooker circuit ends for a month or so. When the season resumes, Selby will be a tough man to beat.
From his first chance Selby carved out a fine break of 74, perhaps a little nervously as a couple of red balls wobbled in the pockets. This was enough and Mark Selby became snooker champion of the world on May 2, 2016.
The frame scores were (Selby first):
First session:
125-8 (91), 70-68 (DJ 52), 101-43 (76), 124-0 (120), 100-0 (70), 77-38, 47-68, 14-107
Second session:
73-22, 30-92 (76), 1-103 (103), 49-93 (89), 71-1, 0-86 (86), 52-82 (55), 86-25, 67-27
Third session:
7-121 (89), 56-61, 126-11 (126), 0-103 (103), 75-43 (52), 118-9 (68), 1-69 (52), 75-11 (55)
Fourth session:
103-0 (57), 67-60 (DJ 60), 0-87 (73), 0-108 (70), 0-103 (103), 59-11, 74-0 (74)
