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!
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Makes his achievements even more special when earlier in his career he faced bankruptcy, turned everything around under more pressure than most.Leave a comment:
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Congratulations, Mark Selby has really proved himself one of the games great players this year.Leave a comment:
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Well done Mark Selby the Standard was brilliant tonight. Hopefully Selby and O'Sullivan will meet in another big final in 2017.Leave a comment:
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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:Leave a comment:
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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.Leave a comment:
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It is not just about that, but the grimacas he was making when the ref was respotting pink behind its spot etc etc .... but the most most important thing in the end is how well was the final played in the end .... Really happy for MarkOriginally Posted by stephenm2682 View PostLeave a comment:
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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.Leave a comment:
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Well played Mark Selby. Back to back centuries against O sullivan to close out the match. Always a few knob ends in the crowd shouting out and the end. O sullivan was beat fair and square and took the defeat very acrimoniously, shame his fans couldn't.Leave a comment:
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That ref is to slow, Paul n Jan speed up when Ronnie does, but that ref keeps going round slowOriginally Posted by Hal View PostLeave a comment:
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What a player Selby is. ROS put him under it but Selby was absolute granite. He really is the number 1 player......
Congrats, Mark..Leave a comment:
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Good final, specialy the evening session, there were too many errors in the afternoon ....
Mark Selby proved why he is ranked as number one for such a long time, given the lead he has at the prize money list now, he will definitely stay there even after the world championship at least ....
Only thing I did not like about the final was ROS attitude towards Olivier Marteel.Leave a comment:
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Fantastic final!!
Kudos to Ronnie for putting on a brave fight and congratulations to Mark Selby, who showed once more that he is the best snooker player in the world the last few years. Now not only a double world champion, but also a double UK champion along with three Masters titles to go. Only the sixth player to win every triple crown event at least twice.
In the world ranking Selby has now nearly double as much points as second placed Stuart Bingham (994942 to 518929).Leave a comment:
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