Mark Selby succesfully defended his Scottish Open title yesterday, beating Ronnie very comprehensively by 9-3. Mark has now won 11 consecutive ranking finals, equalling Stephen Hendry’s record. This is Mark’s 19th ranking title, on par with Judd Trump and Neil Robertson.
Congratulations Mark Selby!
Here are the reports by WST:
Selby Secures Lead In Final
Defending champion Mark Selby emerged from the first session of his Matchroom.Live Scottish Open final with World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan leading 6-2.
It’s the first time the pair have met since their epic World Championship semi-final clash earlier this year. On that occasion, O’Sullivan rallied from 16-14 down to win 17-16. He’ll be hoping for a similar turnaround this evening.
Selby is aiming to win the Stephen Hendry Trophy and the £70,000 top prize for the second year in a row, after sealing the title with a 9-6 win over Jack Lisowski in the final 12 months ago.
They shared the opening two frames this afternoon, before a century run of 102 saw Selby move 2-1 up. He then claimed a tightly contested fourth frame to head into the mid-session 3-1 ahead.
When they returned, Selby had looked to be on the verge of taking the fifth, but a stunning clearance of 58 saw O’Sullivan steal on the black and make it 3-2.
Selby added the sixth and seventh frames to his tally and had looked set to claim the eighth, when he established a commanding 59-0 lead in the frame. O’Sullivan embarked on another spectacular clearance to steal. However, having done the hard work, he inexplicably missed a straightforward red to the top right corner and allowed Selby to seal his 6-2 lead.
They will return at 7pm to play the best of 17 frame tie to a conclusion.
Selby Storms To Scottish Open Title
Mark Selby beat World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan 9-3 in the final of Matchroom.Live Scottish Open to lift the title for a second consecutive year.
The win sees world number four Selby secure the £70,000 top prize and the Stephen Hendry Trophy. The Jester from Leicester remains undefeated in the Scottish Open, having won the title in his first appearance in the event last year. Selby defeated Jack Lisowski 9-6 in the final 12 months ago.
He has now won his last 11 ranking final appearances in a row, you have to go back to the 2016 Shanghai Masters final for his most recent defeat. That sees Selby equal the record for consecutive final wins with Hendry.
This evening’s victory avenges a gut-wrenching World Championship semi-final defeat to O’Sullivan in the most recent meeting between the pair. On that occasion O’Sullivan rallied from 16-14 down, to win 17-16. O’Sullivan remains ahead of Selby in head-to-head meetings, leading 16-11.
Selby has now amassed 19 ranking titles over his career so far. That draws him level with Neil Robertson in seventh position on the all-time ranking event winner’s list.
Selby established a commanding 6-2 lead during this afternoon’s first session. When they returned this evening, the 37-year-old showed no signs of relinquishing his hold on the match. Selby fired in breaks of 78 and 51 in the first frame of the night, to extend his advantage to 7-2.
O’Sullivan kept himself in contention by claiming the tenth frame, but a run of 61 helped Selby to come from behind and take the eleventh to move one from victory. The Rocket had looked set to extend the match, when he embarked on a 147 attempt. However, he missed a routine red on 64 and opened the door for Selby, who ruthlessly crafted a run of 74 to secure victory.
“It is fantastic to equal Stephen Hendry’s record for consecutive wins in finals. He is one of the all-time greats and was one of the players I looked up to as a young lad growing up. To equal a record of his is amazing. I had a phase many years ago when I was getting to ranking finals and not converting them into wins. Now it is going the other way.
“I am a perfectionist and if I’m not doing something how I want it to be, then I get down on myself. I’m always striving to get better. I’m not getting any younger, but there is no reason while you are healthy that you can’t try to get better. That’s what I’m aiming for so I will still be back on the practice table tomorrow working hard for the World Grand Prix.”
O’Sullivan said: “That’s just the way snooker goes sometimes. Some days you are the bug and some days you are the window screen. Today I was the bug.
“It has been a tough week, apart from the first round where I was pretty flawless. From that moment onwards I’ve had tip problems and it was like I was on a slide downwards, rather than one going upwards. Each match got worse and worse. It is really hard to turn that around.”
Here are some more quotes as reported by Phil Haigh
Mark Selby
It was a straight forward victory for the three-time world champion, in a contest in which he was never behind, but he was happy to add a bit of spice to proceedings after the match.
While he described O’Sullivan as the ‘best player to play the game’ he also made subtle digs at the Rocket’s recent comments about his cue action and troublesome tip.
‘To win any tournament nowadays is great, I’m really really happy,’ Selby told Eurosport.
‘Don’t feel as though I played fantastic today, could have played a lot better, I felt like I was searching for my cue action all day.
‘In patches in some matches I feel like I’ve played as good as I can play, still a lot of things to work on.
‘A few shots I wasn’t happy with, didn’t cue them that well. A lot to work on on the practice table but the signs are good.
‘If I was to choose to win a tournament I’d choose to play Ronnie in the final every time.
‘He’s the best player to play the game, but today he didn’t play fantastic, I don’t feel like I played great, I probably need a new tip on.’
O’Sullivan also continued his recent policy of playing on in frames in which he needs multiple snookers, far more than is realistic to win.
….
‘I don’t know, it is what it is. I went into the match knowing he was going to do that so I was ready for it and prepared,’ said Selby. ‘It was a strange one, you’d have to ask him.
‘One thing I will say is if that was me doing it, carrying on from 80 behind I know the commentators would have absolutely crucified me and slaughtered me.
‘I’ve watched it this week, him carrying on against other players, and everyone’s scared to say anything because it’s Ronnie so they don’t say anything.
‘If that had been me, for sure I’d be crucified by social media and the commentators as well.
‘I’m not going to stoop down to that level. People say I’m slow enough, I ain’t going to carry on on the pink and black for another half hour.’
…
Actually there were some negative comments on Eurosport during matches this week. But Mark is right to an extend, he would probably be attacked on social media much more than Ronnie has been.
Ronnie
O’Sullivan made no excuses for his below-par performance in the final, crediting the champion for outplaying him.
‘Mark played fantastically well, I’ve got no complaints, I didn’t really do a lot wrong,’ the Rocket told Eurosport.
‘Just some days you just don’t score enough points and put your opponent under enough pressure.
‘When you get to finals you expect to have to do that, I just didn’t do that good enough.’
Here are the scores:
There were only two positive points in that match for Ronnie: he tried very hard right to the last balls and the 58 clearance he made in frame five was a gem. Other than that he missed too many relatively easy balls, and his long potting was inexistent.
This is how he felt after missing the last red in frame 8. It should have been 5-3, not 6-2 but … 6-2 it was. If I’m honest I was feeling the same when that happened …
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
I felt really sorry and sad watching Ronnie going on only with the black on the table. I don’t know what’s happen into his mind. I don’t accept his excuses about his lack of practice. I understand that’s hard to practise for almost 40 years. But without practice you’ll never more be able to win a tournament. Selby, Robertson, Trump fo practise every day for hours. And they win still trophies.
Trump is 14 years younger, Selby and Robertson are 8 and 7 years younger. Mark Williams also struggles with practice. I’m afraid that’s it’s just how things go after more than 30 years playing… they all started practicing seriously in their early teens.
I am – like most probably everyone one else here – a very big Ronnie fan. If he plays near his best, he is not just a snooker player but really an extraordinary artist, it is so mesmerizing.
That being said, I agree with Mark Selby here.
It is absolutely ridiculous at times when Ronnie keeps on playing. In his first few matches it could be still considered ‘ok’ because he just potted away the remaining balls and you could argue that he wanted to get a feel for the table, to get his arm going etc.
But now he keeps on playing safe on just the colors when he is thousands of points behind. It just doesn’t make any sense. Ronnie stressed a million times already he rather loses a frame quickly than to keep playing safe because he wants to keep his quick rhythm. But now he keeps doing the opposite?
And indeed, if Mark Selby would do the same, he would be crucified. He was crucified last year for taking 6 mins on one shot. Now Ronnie basically wastes 5+ mins on every frame he loses and people are still ‘quite ok’ with it?
I think he is just making it more difficult for himself now. The longer this goes on, the more negative comments he will get and the harder it will be for him to justify it. It will get in his head, it probably already has and I think that’s what also contributed to his problems with his tip.
Ronnie can have bizarre periods and it even breaks my heart a little bit when he does these things. Let’s hope it won’t last too long.
Hopefully he can go one further this week at the World Grand Prix.
Things will be different when spectators return to watch the matches. I have a ticket to the Masters, but things aren’t looking good with the covid policy in London under review…