2017 World Snooker Championship - Selby wins third world title

02:04:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments


Mark Selby beat John Higgins 18-15 to win the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship and retain the trophy he lifted last year, when he defeated Ding Junhui by a pretty similar scoreline, 18-14.

Selby's had a tremendous season, winning the UK Championship back in December by defeating the one and only Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-7 and the recently ended China Open where he beat Mark Williams 10-8.

Talk about breaking a curse for we all know that since the China Open was moved in the snooker calendar before the World Championship, no China Open winner managed to also cash the world title.

In the 2017 World Snooker Championship final, Selby was led 10-4 by a furious John Higgins who displayed such an outstanding cue action throughout the first two sessions.

But something changed, or better to say, Selby's grit made an appearance, when the players returned for their third session, "The Jester" being led 10-7.

The current world number one took the first two frames, some genuine scrappy affairs, with just a top break of 40 before Higgins could make a great 78 clearance and restore the three-frame advantage, 11-9.

Selby managed to win the frame before the interval on the colours and carried on by firing in breaks of 67, 58 and 72 to complete his comeback and take the lead, 13-11.

That's how the scoreline was looking when the forth and last session kicked off, Mark being the one to quickly get the run of the balls and get one more frame under his belt.


An out-of-sorts Higgins tried his best and managed to win the next frame, but by the mid-session interval Selby's breaks of 71 and 70 were putting him 16-12 in front.

After the 15-minutes break the Scotsman produced some magnificent breaks of 88, 111 and 43 to win three frames in a row and keep his hopes alive, but Selby was sure to respond with a powerful 131 and a 75 to close the match at 18-15.

Selby's victory means even more since it puts him alongside with three great legends of the game, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan for winning back-to-back world titles.

"The Jester" is now a thee-time world champion and £375,000 richer, but most importantly continues to retain his world number one spot and tells the story of what determination, stamina and hard-work is all about.

Congrats Jester! You did it again!

Photos credit (1&2): World Snooker

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