2016 UK Championship

[rman]

Great match. Fantastic performance from both players. Selby is the best competitor I've seen since Hendry. Nerves of steel and never knows when he's beaten. Well done, Mark.

[streamer45]

That final was just a fantastic advert for this sport, it doesn't get any better. The standard of play in the evening sessions was incredible as was the sportsmanship shown at the end.

Two top class players giving it everything they had. Makes me proud to say snooker is my favourite sport.

well said!

[Odrl]

Well, what can you say after a session like that...

Sometimes the commentators will "overpraise" the standard of play in a final, like in the European Masters or the English Open this season, and I always get annoyed by that, because they then run out of superlatives for when we do get a really good one. And tonight certainly was a good one. Five centuries and an 80 between them in the last six frames? The standard of breakbuilding was just ridiculous towards the end of the match. Credit to O'Sullivan for really digging deep and putting all the pressure in the world on Selby, I think he would have won against almost any other player tonight... I guess he can look back to that brown to the middle at 8-7, perhaps just one shot too many, especially as Selby cleared the table off it. But O'Sullivan had just made two big breaks, so you can't really blame him for trying to seize another opportunity.

Selby did the same in the last frame, going for an all-or-nothing long pot, even though he had a red in baulk to possibly get a snooker from. But he trusted himself to get the pot and score well from it, as he had been doing all night. He hasn't always been comfortable taking O'Sullivan on in a scoring exchange, but at this point in time his confidence and self-belief is so high that he just went for it tonight. O'Sullivan was still a frame stronger in the second session, but the advantage from the first session was more than enough to get Selby over the line.

Selby has now extended his lead at the top of the rankings even further. He is the reigning World, UK and International champion, so he holds three of the four biggest titles in snooker at the moment. If he wins the Masters next month he will hold all four, which would be the most dominant any player has been since the prime of Mark Williams 13 years ago. Who would have believed that was possible? Every credit to the guy.

All in all, the UK Championship was quite entertaining this year, and certainly less controversial that the previous two years when we had all the nonsense with the playing conditions. I thought the International Championship was perhaps a slightly better tournament in the early rounds, but the UK was better in the final weekend. :smile:

We have the Scottish Open coming up in a week's time, but unfortunately it's the short format again. I will watch a bit of it, but the Masters in January is the next tournament I'm really looking forward to. :smile: And of course there is an exhibition with Selby, Murphy, Trump and Robertson in Ljubljana just before Christmas, so I will finally get to see what snooker looks like live. :wink:

[s.h442]

Well done Mark Selby the Standard was brilliant tonight. Hopefully Selby and O'Sullivan will meet in another big final in 2017.

[Rane]

Congratulations, Mark Selby has really proved himself one of the games great players this year.

[VillaGuy]

Makes his achievements even more special when earlier in his career he faced bankruptcy, turned everything around under more pressure than most.

[Ronnie's tip]

Brilliant by Selby. I think he's going to win the Masters as well, as he's lucked out on the draw. Of the 5 potential winners, 4 are in the top half whilst he's in the bottom.

ROS must hate the sight of him!

[Ramon]

That final was just a fantastic advert for this sport, it doesn't get any better. The standard of play in the evening sessions was incredible as was the sportsmanship shown at the end.

Two top class players giving it everything they had. Makes me proud to say snooker is my favourite sport.

could'nt agree more with this.
great performance from both. attacking snooker. No scrapy frames. well deserved win for Selby.
As a fan of ROS , I can'nt believe I'm saying this, though.

[The Rook]

Excellent final from both players. Great to see that Selby finally seems to be getting more of the respect he deserves.

[motorhead]

And of course there is an exhibition with Selby, Murphy, Trump and Robertson in Ljubljana just before Christmas, so I will finally get to see what snooker looks like live. :wink:

Nice words on the final Odrl! Great to hear you are finally getting the chance to watch these guys live, well deserved treat

[gavpowell]

Selby proved my point that he's the new John Higgins - no need for scrappy, horribly drawn-out stuff tonight, just a perfect mix of safety exchanges, luck and breakbuilding. Wonderful stuff.

I still wouldn't pay to watch Selby unless the opponent made for an interesting match, but he's been proving since his first run to the world final that he can breakbuild with the best of them.

[Sasuke92]

Well done to Selby, unfortunately the first session really messed up Ronnie which is unsual to see as he 90% of the time gets ahead with the easy misses but I'm happy to see Ronnie fight back and make a match of it. Whatever happens I know for a fact he's gonna win a title or more very soon.

[VillaGuy]

Odrl lives in Slovenia? lucky chap voted continuously the best country in the world

[Sasuke92]

Ronnie/Selby rivalry reminds me so much of Federer/Djokovic. Not just their playing styles but their forms.

[VillaGuy]

Ronnie/Selby rivalry reminds me so much of Federer/Djokovic. Not just their playing styles but their forms.

Yeah Ronnie is the federer without doubt, Selby is the defensive tactician with the ability of offense (Djoko)