Ding and Selby to renew battle in Shanghai final

Mark Selby and Ding Junhui will meet for the first time since the World Championship final after reaching the final in Shanghai.

World Champion Selby took the tough route into the final after a very up and done match against Stuart Bingham. Breaks of 76 and 65 helped him to a nice 3-1 lead at the mid-session interval, but in a similar way to his matches against Ryan Day and Stuart Carrington in the last couple of rounds he failed to kick on. Bingham in fact found his best game in the next four frames with runs 67, a match high of 123, followed by a 72 and 87 to turn the match on it's head and take a 5-3 lead, putting him one away from a second Shanghai final in three years. Determined as ever Selby fought back into it by taking the ninth frame, and he dominated the tenth with breaks of 63 and 68 to force a deciding frame. Bingham did not really have a chance in the eleventh and final frame as Selby completed another trademark comeback and will now attempt to add to his 2011 Shanghai Masters title tomorrow against Ding.

Ding Junhui is of course the 2013 Shanghai Masters champion which means that in the tenth staging of this tournament we will finally have the first two time winner. Stephen Maguire was his semi-final opponent with his own agenda of attempting to make the final and knock Michael Holt out of the fourth and final place on the one-year list reserved for the new China Championship (which will follow the International Championship at the beginning of November and feature the world's top 10 on a two year list, the top four on the money list from the season so far and two Chinese invites). After the opening four frames the pair were all square at 2-2 and then Maguire made a 58 before Ding matched him in the sixth to level the tie up again at 3-3. From there it was all about the home favourite. Despite a chance or two for Maguire, Ding took the next three frames and turn a tight game into a simple enough 6-3 victory without shredding his nerves as much as Selby always seems too.

Final Schedule: 

Sessions at 7am and 12.30pm UK time: 

Mark Selby Vs Ding Junhui

The final steps it up being over the best-of-19 frames and it is over these long formats that Selby seems more comfortable knowing, as he did today against Bingham, that he could lose a few frames in a row and be dominated for a large period of the match and still get over the line. It's hard to compare it to the World final, given that it was Ding's first and the nerves took over as he got off to an awful start and was never quite able to catch up. On this occasion I think the pair will go blow for blow and this could go all the way with neither one being at their very best this week. The key could once more be the scrappy frames where Selby is a cut above the rest.

Following Shanghai is the European Masters qualifying rounds which will see 32 travel to the venue the week after, with the International Championship qualifiers falling in a few days in between.