Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby is an English professional snooker player. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 25 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. He is a four-time World Snooker Champion, and has won the Masters and the UK Championship three times each for a total of ten Triple Crown titles, placing him behind only Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis.
After winning the England Under-15 Championship in 1998, Selby turned professional in 1999, aged 16. He made his Crucible debut in 2005, and reached his first World Championship final in 2007, when he was runner-up to John Higgins. He won his first major title at the 2008 Masters, and his first ranking title at the 2008 Welsh Open. Between 2014 and 2017, he won the World Championship three times in four years. He first became world number one in September 2011, and held onto the top ranking position for just over four years between February 2015 and March 2019. He has compiled more than 900 century breaks in professional competition, including six maximum breaks, one of which is the only one to have been made during the final of the World Championships.
Selby is also an accomplished pool player. He won the WEPF World Eightball Championship in 2006 and was runner-up at the Chinese Eight-ball World Championship in 2015. With four world snooker titles and one world pool title to his name, Selby has held world champion status in two different cue sports. In December 2022, he won the Ultimate Pool Pairs Cup alongside his brother-in-law Gareth Potts.
Career
1998–2007
A winner of the England under-15 championship in 1998, Selby joined the professional tour a year later in 1999, at the age of 16. In early 2002, he reached the semi-finals of the China Open, despite leaving his hotel room at 2 a.m. instead of 2 p.m. for one of his matches because of jetlag. In April 2003, aged 19, he reached his first ranking final at the Scottish Open, where he finished runner-up to David Gray, earning himself a place in the top 32 for the first time. In October 2004, he made it to the quarter-finals stage of the 2004 Grand Prix with a 5–3 win over Peter Ebdon, but there he was whitewashed 5–0 by Ronnie O'Sullivan, the tournament's eventual champion. Selby got to the final round of qualifying at the World Snooker Championships in 2002, 2003 and 2004, but failed to progress to the knockout stages at the Crucible Theatre on all three occasions.From late 2005, Selby was managed by former snooker professional and fellow Leicester resident Mukesh Parmar. He progressed to the main draw of the 2005 World Championship, losing 5–10 to John Higgins in the first round. He then faced Higgins in the first round again at the 2006 World Championship, this time defeating the reigning Grand Prix and Masters champion 10–4, before being eliminated in the second round by Mark Williams.
Selby reached the final of the 2007 World Championship, beating Stephen Lee 10–7 in the first round, after winning eight successive from 0–5 behind to lead 8–5, then defeating former world champion Peter Ebdon 13–8 in the second round, making five centuries, with three of them being consecutive. In the quarter-finals, he beat Ali Carter 13–12, from 11–8 ahead and 11–12 behind, in a match that lasted well over nine hours. Then after trailing 14–16, he won his semi-final match 17–16 against Shaun Murphy, in another deciding frame that he took with a 64 break. In the final, John Higgins led 12–4 after the second session, but Selby won all six frames played in the third session on Monday afternoon, before time ran out due to the length of the frames; he was therefore only 10–12 behind entering the final session, and closed to within one frame at 13–14 before eventually losing the match 13–18. Higgins pointed out in his victory speech that Selby was "the most improved player on the tour".
Selby's performance in the 2006–07 season earned him a place in the top 16 for the first time for the 2007–08 season, where he was ranked 11th. His victories over Lee, Ebdon, Carter and Murphy at the 2007 World Championship also won him the inaugural 888.com Silver Chip award for outstanding performance, awarded by the Snooker Writers' Association.
2007–08 season: first Masters title
Next season, Selby made it to the semi-finals in the 2007 Shanghai Masters, but was defeated by Dominic Dale, who went on to win the tournament. Selby also had a strong run in the UK Championship, reaching the semi-finals as well, where he met the eventual winner of the event, Ronnie O'Sullivan. Selby led 7–5, but fell 7–8 behind before levelling the match at 8–8; however, O'Sullivan made a 147 break in the deciding frame to win 9–8.On 20 January 2008, Selby won his first major tournament, the Masters at Wembley Arena in London. En route to the final, he had edged out Stephen Hendry, Stephen Maguire and Ken Doherty, all on a 6–5 scoreline. In the final against Stephen Lee, Selby took control and reeled off eight consecutive frames from 2–3 behind to lead 5–3 at the break and to achieve a decisive 10–3 victory. He produced a high standard of play in the final, compiling four century breaks in total; his final-frame effort, a total clearance of 141, equalled the highest break of the tournament.
Selby claimed his first world ranking title at the Welsh Open on 17 February 2008, winning a close-fought final 9–8 against Ronnie O'Sullivan after recovering from 5–8 behind. He also was a semi-finalist in the China Open, and a finalist in the inaugural Championship League event. However, he could not reproduce his Crucible success from the previous season; despite going into the 2008 World Championship as one of the bookmakers' favourites for the title, Selby was defeated 8–10 in the first round by Mark King.
2008–09 season
The following season Selby was defeated at the 2008 Shanghai Masters, once again in the semi-final stage by the event's eventual winner, this time Ricky Walden. Then at the beginning of the new year, he reached the final of the Masters again, where he was runner-up to Ronnie O'Sullivan, losing the match 8–10 after leading 7–5. In the Welsh Open quarter-finals he was handed a writ by a member of the audience, supposedly his former manager George Barmby. Selby commented that all he could think about was the envelope that had been given to him before he was defeated 3–5 by Anthony Hamilton. Later on in the season, he made it to the final once more in the 2009 Championship League, and also reached the quarter-finals of the 2009 World Championship, losing 12–13 to John Higgins, who went on to win his third world title.2009–10 season: second Masters title
Selby recovered from 4–8 behind to beat Jamie Cope 9–8 in the first round of the 2009 UK Championship, but was beaten in the quarter-finals 3–9, yet again by Ronnie O'Sullivan. On 17 January 2010, having reached the final for the third time in as many years, he won his second Masters title, in a repeat of the previous year's final where he had lost to O'Sullivan. This time, after falling behind 6–9, with O'Sullivan needing one more frame for another victory, Selby took the next four frames to win the championship 10–9. He came within reach of his second World Championship final in 2010, losing in the semi-finals 14–17 to Graeme Dott, despite pulling up to 10–11 and 13–14.2010–11 season
In July 2010, Selby won the Six-red World Championship in Bangkok, with an 8–6 victory over Ricky Walden in the final. At the 2011 China Open, he beat Tian Pengfei, Robert Milkins, Ali Carter, and home favourite Ding Junhui, but was defeated 8–10 by Judd Trump in the final. At the 2011 World Championship, he set the record for the most century breaks compiled in a world championship match when he made six in his second-round tie with Stephen Hendry. This was also a record for a best-of-25-frames match, and took Selby's century tally for the season to 54, setting a new record for the most centuries compiled by one player in a single season.2011–12 season
Selby started the season by winning the non-ranking Wuxi Classic with a 9–7 victory over Ali Carter. He won his second ranking event at the Shanghai Masters, where he defeated Mark Williams 10–9 in the final, winning the last three frames from 7–9 behind. With this victory, Selby replaced Williams as world number one, moving to the top of the world rankings for the first time in his career.He also won the minor-ranking PTC Event 4 ; having edged out Ronnie O'Sullivan 4–3 in the semi-finals, he achieved a 4–0 whitewash over Mark Davis in the final. Selby eventually finished fifth on the PTC Order of Merit and therefore qualified to the last 16 of the PTC Grand Final. He beat Ding Junhui 4–1, before losing 0–4 to eventual winner Stephen Lee in the quarter-finals.
Selby progressed to the quarter-finals of the Masters in January, where he lost 2–6 to Shaun Murphy. He was defeated by Murphy again the following month, in the quarter-finals of the German Masters, losing the match 3–5. After reaching the final of the Welsh Open, where he lost 6–9 to Ding, he met Murphy for the third time in less than six weeks, in the quarter-finals of the World Open, this time achieving a 5–0 whitewash. However, he then suffered a 5–6 semi-final defeat against Mark Allen, despite having built up a 5–2 lead.
Selby withdrew from the second round of the China Open because of a neck injury. His decision to withdraw was also a precautionary measure to make sure he was ready for the upcoming World Championship. He played Barry Hawkins in the first round and was defeated 3–10. After the match, Selby admitted that he had only managed nine hours of practice in preparation for the tournament, and there were certain shots that he was physically unable to play. Despite this disappointment, he finished the season still as world number one.