The third session of the world snooker championship final continued the mix of brilliant potting and the war of attrition, as both players showed they can play as well defensively as they can produce attacking shots.
The third session resumed with Selby leading 10-7. This came after a slower second session in which Selby’s assured break building began to fade and he was forced to adopt a more defensive game after Ding started to chip away at Selby’s lead.
In the first session, Selby had played very well, moving to 6-0, which included a break of 120. His Chinese opponent however rallied to 5-7 behind, aided by a century of his own – a break of 103.
Things then became a little slower, with one frame lasting almost 70 minutes. Once Ding had secured this for 7-8 his game lost some of its sharpness, and Selby won the final two frames of the day.
On day three, Ding showed that his potting had not deserted him and he fired in an impressive break of 89 to pull back to 8-10 behind. Ding then won a lengthy nineteenth frame on the black, pinching it 61-56.
Just when it seemed as if Ding was going to level, Selby produced his second century break of the final, this time compiling a well put together break of 126. This gave the play from Leicester, England a two-frame cushion again. However, Ding responded with his own second century, running out a 103 break. This made the score 11-10 in Selby’s favor – quite a bit different to when he was six frames up.
After these impressive back-to-back centuries, however, the game began to slowdown and the players became a little less self-assured. The slowing of the pace and the effect of the occasional misses seemed to affect Ding more than Selby and the English player gradually began to pull away.
The twenty-second frame was a tough affair, with Selby winning it 75-43, largely due to a 66 break. However, Selby’s break came to an end after he missed a straightforward black off its spot, the ball rattling in the pocket. Ding had a good chance to win it; however an attempt he made to split open the remaining reds failed and a weak safety helped Selby to fall over the winning line for the frame.
Selby won the twenty-third frame with a break of 68, clinching it 118-9, and thus moving into a 13-10 lead. Selby’s break came after he had steadily built up a lead of 50 points to 9, helped by a little luck when some safety shots he played could have left Ding in with a scoring opportunity. At the end of the session, Selby is 14-11 ahead.
As the session wore on Ding’s shots started to go awry and Selby received a better run of the balls. This caused Ding to lose momentum and provided Selby with a sight of the title going into the final session of the day and the chance to be crowned world champion.
