Four-time Crucible king Mark Selby revealed that he could quit snooker at the end of this season, after a “pathetic” performance in a 10-8 reverse against Gary Wilson in the first round of the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship.
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Wilson, who has already won two ranking titles during the best season of his career, goes through to face Zhang Anda in the quarter-finals in Manchester on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.
But world number five Selby was left dejected by his own game and insisted that the Cazoo World Championship, which starts on April 20th, could be his last event. “From start to finish I was pathetic, I didn’t deserve to win,” said the Leicester cueman. “I tried and battled but it was terrible. If I carry on playing like that, that will be it for me, for sure.
“I felt flat, it’s a big tournament and if you can’t get yourself up for events like this there’s something wrong. I have always said that if I get to the point where I am not enjoying it, it doesn’t matter whether you are number one in the world or number 128, I won’t carry on playing. I am still putting the work in, but if you practise for performances like that it seems pointless. If I put in the same performance in Sheffield, that will be me done.“
Wilson, playing in this event for the first time, took a 5-3 lead in the first session on Monday with top breaks of 95, 98, 78, 101. The first six frames today were shared to leave the Wallsend potter 8-6 in front. In frame 15 he had clear chances to extend his lead, but twice missed the brown to a centre pocket on the brink of 9-6. Selby converted an excellent brown-to-black clearance to close to 8-7.
The 16th also came down to the colours, and this time Wilson cleared from yellow to black to go two up with three to play. Selby pulled one back with a run of 90 and had a chance for 9-9, but missed a red to a centre pocket on 30 in frame 18. That proved his last shot as Wilson finished in style with a 105.
Wilson said: “It wasn’t a great game, we both missed easy chances. It’s still tough to beat someone as good as Mark, though there are not many positives to take from it other than the result. I kept making it difficult for myself and handing him chances to get back into the game. But thankfully I made a good break in the last frame to get over the line.
“I need to find something before tomorrow. You never know in this game, sometimes you feel as if you don’t know where you career is going, it feels that bad. But the positives are that I have had a great season, I’m in the top 16 and I hope I’m just having a blip I will come through. I will stay chirpy and just crack on.”
Meanwhile, Ali Carter raced into a 7-1 lead over Barry Hawkins in match which finishes on Tuesday night. Hawkins took the opening frame with a break of 84, but scored just 26 points in the next six frames as Carter rattled in breaks of 80, 51, 83, 135 and 94.
The last frame of the session came down to a safety battle on the final pink, and Carter converted a thin cut to a centre pocket to extend his lead. The winner will face Ronnie O’Sullivan over two sessions on Wednesday.
Mark Selby’s battle with depression has been well documented. His childhood was traumatic, his mother abandoned him, he lost his father as a teenager and, recently, he had to support his wife Vikki in her battle against cancer. All that is bound to take its toll on him, it would on anyone no matter how though they are and Mark is though. I hope he gets the support he needs. His health has to be the priority, everything else is secondary. I’m glad that mental health issues are better understood nowadays. Not so long ago this kind of post-match would have attracted comments like “what he is about, he’s got plenty of money … he should get a ‘real job’ , go stack boxes in the supermarket … he doesn’t know what hardship is”. 1
Mark Williams made one of the all-time great deciding frame clearances to beat Tom Ford 10-9 in a thrilling finish at the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship.
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Ford looked set for victory at 9-9 until he missed a red to a top corner leading 54-0. Four of the last seven reds, as well as the blue, were tight to cushions, but veteran Williams pulled off a series of tremendous pots in an extraordinary 66 clearance. He goes through to the quarter-finals in Manchester to face Judd Trump on Thursday.
“I don’t know how I did it but that was one of the best clearances I’ve ever made,” said three-time World Champion Williams. “The shot from blue to pink was very difficult but there was no way I was playing safe on any ball. It’s definitely one of my best.
“Tom was by far the better player, he made four centuries and didn’t win, he must have thought he had me. But I’m used to be being up against it. It shows where my game is at if I can play poorly but still win.”
BEST DECIDING FRAME CLEARANCE EVER?
Leading 5-3 after the first session, 49-year-old Williams extended his advantage to 8-4 with top breaks of 112 and 88. Ford stormed back to 8-7 with runs of 138 (the highest break of the event so far) and 133. He had chances in frame 16 but Williams recovered to take it on a respotted black. Ford then made 90 and 63 for 9-9, and seemed in control of the decider until his missed red, which proved crucial.
British Open champion in September, world number eight Williams is through to his fifth ranking quarter-final of the season.
There was more drama on the other table as Ali Carter survived a Barry Hawkins fight-back to win 10-8. That sets up an intriguing quarter-final with Ronnie O’Sullivan on Wednesday – their first meeting since the bad-tempered Masters final in January.
Carter led 7-1 after the first session and still looked in charge at 8-3 and 9-5. Hawkins got the better of frame 15 then came from 48-0 down to steal the 16th for 9-7. In the next, Carter led 62-4 with three reds left, but Hawkins got the two snookers he needed on the last red, and eventually won it on a respotted back to close within one frame. But world number nine Carter dominated frame 18 to reach his sixth ranking quarter-final of the season.
“At 7-1 sometimes you feel you have it all to lose,” said the Captain. “Barry came back at me really well and it got a bit sticky in the end. But that makes it a better win – if I had won 10-1 it would have felt like a bit of a non-event. I have gone through the wringer and I can’t wait to get back to the hotel for a glass of wine.
“I am just trying my best, I am enjoying it and looking forward to the challenge tomorrow. It will be an open free-flowing match. I’m not going to put myself under any pressure, I’ll just play and see what happens.“
Mark Williams enjoying pool more than snooker as he eyes up more 8-Ball events
Phil Haigh
Mark Williams intends to play a lot more Chinese 8-Ball pool in the months to come, saying he is enjoying the game more than snooker at the moment.
The 49-year-old is still riding high in the snooker world and is in action this week at the Tour Championship, showing how well he is doing as only the top 12 on the one-year ranking list qualify for the event.
However, he has admitted that he doesn’t expect to do well as he has been in China playing in the Joy Cup World Heyball Masters Grand Finals, a huge Chinese 8-Ball event which had a top prize of $700,000 (£557,900).
The Welsh Potting Machine was beaten by one of the greats of the game, Zheng Yubo, in the last 32 in Qinhuangdao but he wants to get back on the pool table as soon as he can, and would love to play Zheng again across both disciplines.
‘I enjoyed every minute of it,’ he said after his last match in China. ‘It’s nice to play the best player in the world, the best Chinese pool player ever.
‘I knew I wasn’t going to beat him, I didn’t have much chance of winning really because it’s the first time I’ve seen a really top player play like that, I think he missed one ball in the whole match.
‘But I loved it and if someone can show me how to break off then I can definitely get a lot close to him. I’d love to play more Chinese pool. It would be nice some time this year maybe if me and Yubo can get a challenge match. He plays me at snooker and I play him at Chinese 8 ball again and I’ll practice a bit more. I’ve seen him play snooker, he makes 147s, so I know how good he is. I think that would be a good challenge match.
‘I probably enjoy playing Chinese 8 ball rather than snooker, to be honest. I just want to play more, I’d like to play more tournaments this year to see if I can get any better.’
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‘I’m definitely not retiring, but a lot more pool is on the horizon for me,’ he told ITV.
Other snooker players were involved in the event in Qinhuangdao, with the likes of Elliot Slessor and Jimmy Robertson picking up some wins.
Speaking earlier in the season, Williams said he expects more snooker professionals to get involved as and when they can.
‘I think if it doesn’t clash with tournaments I think a lot more (snooker players) will play in it,’ Williams told SportsBoom. ‘I’m going the other way and if a couple of the tournaments do clash with snooker events then I’ll pick the Chinese pool over the snooker tournaments.
‘I enjoy it. It’s the number one game in China. The following that it’s got is massive. The prize money is big, but I don’t think a snooker player has a chance against the top Chinese boys, unless you really practice hard at it.’
And John Higgins is also considering the end of his career after a poor display on Monday, as reported by various media, notably by Eurosport. He hinted that this World Championship could be his “final go“.
At least it did when Ronnie was at the start of his career, with both parents in jail, struggling with taking care of his young sister and battling depression and addictions … this is the kind of comments he got. ↩︎
7 thoughts on “The 2024 Tour Championship – Day 2 … and a lot of side news …”
It would be a very sad day indeed when John finally retires. I feel like there is no other player Ronnie has had more respect for (and vice versa) than John. To me it alway seemed that their rivalry is played in much better spirit than maybe with Selby or Trump. However, I also feel that John’s issues with winning titles or close matches go a bit deeper than most would think… I read that he decided to seek out a sports psychologist some time ago, but it clearly isn’t helping him the way Steve Peters managed to help Ronnie in 2011/12. With all the talk about Selby (and other players) suffering from depression and how that affects their game, I just hope that this is not the case for John…
Surely John cannot retire if he doesn’t reach his 1000th century in Sheffield.
It would not exactly be kind to question players about particular shot choices after they lost a match. I know interviewers are not there for kindness, but some compassion cannot hurt.
rOyOf course I could pinpoint some shots poor Barry Hawkins should have made to win yesterday and how much better it would have been. As to these retirement interviews: Higgins’ frustration is not surprising that as he has not won anything of importance since 2021 despite various efforts and the feeling that in 2021 he found something. Selby beat Ronnie 6-0 not so long ago, so he can’t feel that bad about his game, but commiserations for all his current problems. Hope, things will go well in the family.
The lesson from all of this is not to pay too much attention to what players say in post-match interviews, especially after losing. Unfortunately there seems to be a trend in snooker of negativity and self-pity in interviews, not helped by the interviewers who encourage it. I wish they would ask more direct questions, about specific shots at key moments.
Someone who will be retiring after the World Championship is Rolf Kalb, who has given many years of hard work trying to promote the game, and always very welcoming when I’m in Germany. He’s now 64, has other plans, and nodoubt feels it’s time to hand over to a new generation. That’s a very commendable attitude.
Asking relevant questions about specific shots demands true knowledge and understanding of the sport, something most interviewers don’t possess. Some of my experiences at the Crucible were such that I happily do without them… I remember two occurrences in particular. One involved Ronnie who was challenged about a particular shot choice after losing to Higgins. The interviewer insisted that it was wrong and suggested that he actually threw the match. Ronnie ended up telling him very coldly that he didn’t understand the sport. The same guy then quizzed Higgins about what he would have done in the circumstances, only for Higgins to answer that he would have played the same shot. The other occurrence involved Ding after a loss. Ding got very upset and ended up swearing and cursing. Not great!
Yes, they don’t have the skills to handle it. There was a similar altercation involving Shaun Murphy and Jill Douglas last year. Of course, they mustn’t criticise, but they can ask questions. But in general, they can ask “was that shot the turning point?”. As soon as they start going down the road of “taking positives” etc., we’re into psychobabble and it’s a downward spiral.
But there are far too many interviews really, with mostly the same small group of players. It’s very difficult for anyone to find anything interesting to say. I’d prefer it if they kept them really short.
The upcoming Judgement Day interviews are usually morose, despite these players having just achieved a notable success! And of course if an enthusiastic young Chinese player qualifies, they will exclude him anyway…
Let’s hope for he best. Interviews with Chinese players have become more common which is good.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
It would be a very sad day indeed when John finally retires. I feel like there is no other player Ronnie has had more respect for (and vice versa) than John. To me it alway seemed that their rivalry is played in much better spirit than maybe with Selby or Trump. However, I also feel that John’s issues with winning titles or close matches go a bit deeper than most would think… I read that he decided to seek out a sports psychologist some time ago, but it clearly isn’t helping him the way Steve Peters managed to help Ronnie in 2011/12. With all the talk about Selby (and other players) suffering from depression and how that affects their game, I just hope that this is not the case for John…
Surely John cannot retire if he doesn’t reach his 1000th century in Sheffield.
It would not exactly be kind to question players about particular shot choices after they lost a match. I know interviewers are not there for kindness, but some compassion cannot hurt.
rOyOf course I could pinpoint some shots poor Barry Hawkins should have made to win yesterday and how much better it would have been. As to these retirement interviews: Higgins’ frustration is not surprising that as he has not won anything of importance since 2021 despite various efforts and the feeling that in 2021 he found something. Selby beat Ronnie 6-0 not so long ago, so he can’t feel that bad about his game, but commiserations for all his current problems. Hope, things will go well in the family.
The lesson from all of this is not to pay too much attention to what players say in post-match interviews, especially after losing. Unfortunately there seems to be a trend in snooker of negativity and self-pity in interviews, not helped by the interviewers who encourage it. I wish they would ask more direct questions, about specific shots at key moments.
Someone who will be retiring after the World Championship is Rolf Kalb, who has given many years of hard work trying to promote the game, and always very welcoming when I’m in Germany. He’s now 64, has other plans, and nodoubt feels it’s time to hand over to a new generation. That’s a very commendable attitude.
Asking relevant questions about specific shots demands true knowledge and understanding of the sport, something most interviewers don’t possess. Some of my experiences at the Crucible were such that I happily do without them… I remember two occurrences in particular. One involved Ronnie who was challenged about a particular shot choice after losing to Higgins. The interviewer insisted that it was wrong and suggested that he actually threw the match. Ronnie ended up telling him very coldly that he didn’t understand the sport. The same guy then quizzed Higgins about what he would have done in the circumstances, only for Higgins to answer that he would have played the same shot. The other occurrence involved Ding after a loss. Ding got very upset and ended up swearing and cursing. Not great!
Yes, they don’t have the skills to handle it. There was a similar altercation involving Shaun Murphy and Jill Douglas last year. Of course, they mustn’t criticise, but they can ask questions. But in general, they can ask “was that shot the turning point?”. As soon as they start going down the road of “taking positives” etc., we’re into psychobabble and it’s a downward spiral.
But there are far too many interviews really, with mostly the same small group of players. It’s very difficult for anyone to find anything interesting to say. I’d prefer it if they kept them really short.
The upcoming Judgement Day interviews are usually morose, despite these players having just achieved a notable success! And of course if an enthusiastic young Chinese player qualifies, they will exclude him anyway…
Let’s hope for he best. Interviews with Chinese players have become more common which is good.