A lot of snooker players played in the World Chinese 8 ball
Pool Championship the week or so beforehand and it did not end until the
Monday, with Mark Selby among the players opening up the German Masters on Wednesday
afternoon in Berlin. It seemed a pretty innocuous trip for many as they
struggled against players that were regular pool players, or in some case
(Shaun Murphy) didn’t really know the rules too well and struggled to get to
grips with things on that front. Selby though of course has always been a good
pool player and he gave it a really good go, getting into the final on that
Monday in China against Darren Appleton. It was a pretty close match but would
always be tough against one of the better pool players around and Selby ended
up losing.
What that did mean for Mark was that he had to travel back
from China on the Monday evening and go straight to Berlin for his Wednesday
afternoon start against Anthony McGill. To say he looked tired when he turned up
for the match after all of the travelling and the jet lag that would come with
all of that, would be an understatement. He actually got off to a good start
against Anthony McGill. Despite it being a different cue sport, he was still
striking the ball well and stormed into a 4-1 lead in the best-of-9 frames
match aided by a break of 80 along the way. The Scot didn’t give up lightly
though and won the next three frames with 66, 88 and 65 breaks to force a
deciding frame. Despite that barrage it was still Selby who scrambled over the
line but by no means was it convincing.
Peter Ebdon didn’t offer much of a challenge in the Last 16,
losing 5-1 but the quarter-final against Judd Trump was an entirely different
challenge. On a dramatic night all around in the Tempodrome as every match went
to a deciding frame, Selby had to be on top form all of a sudden if he were to
beat the Juddernaut. The performance came out of nowhere really from Mark and
he went into an early 3-1 lead, starting with an 87 before breaks of 83 and 95
in frames three and four with a run of 94 from Judd in frame two getting him
his frame on the board. The first frame after the interval saw the biggest
moment of the match as Judd Trump waded in with a maximum 147 break to get back
to 2-3 and he quickly had the next as well to square the contest. Unfazed, Mark
came in with a contribution of 62 to move ahead once again, but the decider was
forced courtesy of 54 and a later 69 in frame eight from Trump. Judd had his
chances in the decider, but Selby’s later 60 break was the telling blow as Mark
took out the match 5-4.
The semi-final performance against Stephen Maguire was
convincing as he went 3-0 ahead early on and never let his second Scottish
opponent of the week, back into the match.
The final was an altogether different proposition once again
as he had to tackle the in-form man Shaun Murphy. Shaun had just about held on to beat him a
month beforehand in the first round of the Masters and for that Selby wanted
revenge. It didn’t start well as Murphy won four frames in a row from 1-2
behind to lead 5-2 but the tide of the match turned in the final frame of the
opening session as Murphy lost the frame from 62-0 in front as Selby cleared in
style to pull it back to 3-5. He kept his foot well and truly on the gas in the
first mini session of four frames that evening, winning the lot as Murphy was
left frazzled a 5-3 lead turning to a 7-5 deficit for the reigning Masters
champion. He came back out stronger as Mark could only watch on, the match levelled
once again at 7-7 in the first to 9 final. The important fifteenth frame went
to Selby after chances for Shaun, and Mark stepped up another gear to close out
the match a 9-7 winner.
The tournament really did sum up the resilience that Selby
possesses as well as his immense talent. People were becoming critical of his
poor performances since becoming World Champion so to go out to China and play
the World Pool Championships was a brave decision when he could have stayed at
home practised hard and come to Berlin fresh. He was certainly the opposite of
that when he turned up and his performance against Anthony sort of left him in
that situation where the pressure was off because he didn’t really expect that
much from the rest of the week and no-one else really did when we saw a zombie
looking Selby turn up in the Eurosport studio. Pure determination and the high
levels of skill he has got him through and that is why Selby deserves to be
Player of the Month for February.
March was a different kettle of fish altogether though so be sure to come back and find out who takes the player of the year nomination for that.
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