Player of the Year: May: Mark Selby

On day 5 of my look back at the best players of the year, we take a trip back to May and when you think of May there really is only one option when picking the best player and that is World Champion Mark Selby. This is what I've had to say about his triumphant month:

Player of the month in May and that is the man that became World Snooker champion on May Day, and that is Mark Selby. I have to admit I didn’t think that Mark Selby would have enough left in him for an assault on the world title after another long season, having struggled in 2013 and 2012 having done exactly the same, and his performance in the China Open quarter-finals against Mike Dunn was so bad, that I feared once again for Selby’s Crucible campaign. He was in trouble in the opening round against young Michael White, who managed to claw Selby back to a decider, but Mark struggled through 10-9. In the second round Mark had a slightly easier time against Ali Carter, before thrashing Alan McManus in the quarters. The semi-finals brought out a true classic between Mark and one of the players of the season in Neil Robertson who’d just completed his 100 centuries in a season, and the Aussie was a strong favourite in my eyes to make the final. Mark was strong again though and he played incredibly well to beat Neil and make his second world final. There he played his old rival Ronnie O’Sullivan and despite finding himself in a precarious position after day one of the final, he was able to claw things back on the Monday afternoon as the whole final turned on its head. In a tense and exciting final session it was Selby that had the best of things to run out an 18-14 winner and win his first World Championship. It’s tough to say there will be more to come for Mark because there are so many good players at the top of the game these days, and they’ll be challenging at Crucible time for the big one. Mark though is one of the best safety players out there, even when he’s nowhere near his best which is a great asset to his game, and when he is on top form he’s able to score with the same power as the likes of Ronnie, Robertson and Ding.

These 2 games for me were classic matches and grab the pure essence of Mark Selby’s all round game:

Mark Selby 17-15 Neil Robertson – Mark won the first session of this match to lead 5-3, before drawing the next session to lead 9-7 going into the Saturday where they would play the final two sessions. Mark opened up with a 104 century to lead 10-7 before losing all of the next three frames to be pegged back on terms at 10-10. The next four frames of the session were shared as the players came into one final session with the scores all square at 12-12 and everything to play for with a place against Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final looming. A break of 74 from Neil put him 13-12 in front but as Selby always does he hit back with even more as breaks of 79 and 37 helped him gain the lead back at 14-13. A run of 53 from Neil levelled the scores again in this enthralling semi-final at 14-14 at the final mid-session break. Mark came out of the break the stronger of the two and in gritty Selby style he won the next two frames with breaks of 77 and 54 to go one away from the final at 16-14. This match had always been about the players trading blows and big responses, and a huge response from Robertson to go 15-16 behind with a marvellous century left us asking if this one was going all the way. It didn’t turn out that way though as Mark responded again as he always has done, summing up his mentality to win the match with a fantastic break under pressure of 74 to get into the final winning 17-15.

Mark Selby 18-14 Ronnie O’Sullivan – On day one of the final Mark found himself in a precarious position trailing O’Sullivan 10-5 and those aren’t usually positions that Ronnie squanders. However, Mark never gives up and always digs in, winning all of the next six frames with breaks including 58, 62, 55, 52 and 74 to somehow find a way to shut O’Sullivan out and lead for the first time in this final on the Monday afternoon at 11-10. Ronnie won two of the next three with breaks of 50 and 100 to level the match at 12-12. Mark followed up with another three frames in a row to give himself some breathing space at 15-12 by simply managing to grind O’Sullivan down as he can do with so many opponents. When Ronnie came back at him and closed to within one at 14-15. That didn’t faze Mark though as he made superb breaks of 127, 87 and a superb clearance of 35 in the last to win the match and the World Championships, inflicting Ronnie’s first Crucible defeat on him since 2011, proving that he has the ability to do things against Ronnie O’Sullivan that nobody else in the game of snooker can, such his mental strength, gritty style and overall ability.

Mark Selby is a fantastic ambassador for the game of snooker, entering all of the events on tour that he possibly can to balance his snooker with his family life (which will become difficult now that him and his wife Vikki have recently had their first child) but he gives his all in any event big or small and he never gives up in any match until the fat lady sings, which demonstrates his incredible attitude that so many young players could learn from to dig in when he’s not playing well, and is the sole reason behind so much of his success and with an attitude like his I’m so glad that he won the World Title because he is one of those players that it would’ve been a massive shame if he went his whole career without one. An all-round nice guy on and off of the snooker table, Mark Selby deserves all of the brilliant things that come his way.

 

Mark Selby is superb contender for the title of Player of the Year which will be decided by me on January 2nd, but before that we've still got plenty of months to look back on, continuing tomorrow with June so be sure to come back for more of the same in 24 hours.