Mark Selby

Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player.

Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 22 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners.

He is a four-time World Snooker Champion, and has won the Masters three times and the UK Championship twice for a total of nine Triple Crown titles, putting him on a par with John Higgins, and behind only Ronnie O’Sullivan (23), Stephen Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15).

After winning the England Under-15 Championship in 1998, Selby turned professional in 1999, aged 16.

A winner of the England under-15 championship in 1998, Selby joined the professional tour a year later in 1999, at the age of 16.

In early 2002, he reached the semi-finals of the China Open, despite leaving his hotel room at 2 a.m. instead of 2 p.m. for one of his matches because of jetlag.

Selby got to the final round of qualifying at the World Snooker Championships in 2002, 2003 and 2004, but failed to progress to the knockout stages at the Crucible Theatre on all three occasions.

In April 2003, aged 19, he reached his first ranking final at the Scottish Open, where he finished runner-up to David Gray, earning himself a place in the top 32 for the first time.

In October 2004, he made it to the quarter-finals stage of the 2004 Grand Prix with a 5–3 win over Peter Ebdon, but there he was whitewashed 5–0 by Ronnie O'Sullivan, the tournament's eventual champion.

He made his Crucible debut in 2005, and reached his first World Championship final in 2007, when he was runner-up to John Higgins.

From late 2005, Selby was managed by former snooker professional and fellow Leicester resident Mukesh Parmar.

He progressed to the main draw of the 2005 World Championship, losing 5–10 to John Higgins in the first round.

Selby is also a pool player; he was the 2006 World Eight-ball Pool Federation champion, and the runner-up at the Chinese Eight-ball World Championship in 2015, making him the only man to have been world champion in both snooker and pool.

He then faced Higgins in the first round again at the 2006 World Championship, this time defeating the reigning Grand Prix and Masters champion 10–4, before being eliminated in the second round by Mark Williams.

Selby's performance in the 2006–07 season earned him a place in the top 16 for the first time for the 2007–08 season, where he was ranked 11th.

Selby reached the final of the 2007 World Championship, beating Stephen Lee 10–7 in the first round, after winning eight successive from 0–5 behind to lead 8–5, then defeating former world champion Peter Ebdon 13–8 in the second round, making five centuries, with three of them being consecutive.

In the quarter-finals, he beat Ali Carter 13–12, from 11–8 ahead and 11–12 behind, in a match that lasted well over nine hours.

Then after trailing 14–16, he won his semi-final match 17–16 against Shaun Murphy, in another deciding frame that he took with a 64 break.

In the final, John Higgins led 12–4 after the second session, but Selby won all six frames played in the third session on Monday afternoon, before time ran out due to the length of the frames; he was therefore only 10–12 behind entering the final session, and closed to within one frame at 13–14 before eventually losing the match 13–18.

Higgins pointed out in his victory speech that Selby was "the most improved player on the tour".

His victories over Lee, Ebdon, Carter and Murphy at the 2007 World Championship also won him the inaugural 888.com Silver Chip award for outstanding performance, awarded by the Snooker Writers' Association.

Next season, Selby made it to the semi-finals in the 2007 Shanghai Masters, but was defeated by Dominic Dale, who went on to win the tournament.

Selby also had a strong run in the UK Championship, reaching the semi-finals as well, where he met the eventual winner of the event, Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Selby led 7–5, but fell 7–8 behind before levelling the match at 8–8; however, O'Sullivan made a 147 break in the deciding frame to win 9–8.

He won his first major title at the 2008 Masters, and his first ranking title at the 2008 Welsh Open.

On 20 January 2008, Selby won his first major tournament, the Masters at Wembley Arena in London.

En route to the final, he had edged out Stephen Hendry, Stephen Maguire and Ken Doherty, all on a 6–5 scoreline.

In the final against Stephen Lee, Selby took control and reeled off eight consecutive frames from 2–3 behind to lead 5–3 at the break and to achieve a decisive 10–3 victory.

He produced a high standard of play in the final, compiling four century breaks in total; his final-frame effort, a total clearance of 141, equalled the highest break of the tournament.

Selby claimed his first world ranking title at the Welsh Open on 17 February 2008, winning a close-fought final 9–8 against Ronnie O'Sullivan after recovering from 5–8 behind.

He also was a semi-finalist in the China Open, and a finalist in the inaugural Championship League event.

However, he could not reproduce his Crucible success from the previous season; despite going into the 2008 World Championship as one of the bookmakers' favourites for the title, Selby was defeated 8–10 in the first round by Mark King.

The following season Selby was defeated at the 2008 Shanghai Masters, once again in the semi-final stage by the event's eventual winner, this time Ricky Walden.

Then at the beginning of the new year, he reached the final of the Masters again, where he was runner-up to Ronnie O'Sullivan, losing the match 8–10 after leading 7–5.

In the Welsh Open quarter-finals he was handed a writ by a member of the audience, supposedly his former manager George Barmby.

Selby commented that all he could think about was the envelope that had been given to him before he was defeated 3–5 by Anthony Hamilton.

Later on in the season, he made it to the final once more in the 2009 Championship League, and also reached the quarter-finals of the 2009 World Championship, losing 12–13 to John Higgins, who went on to win his third world title.

He first became world number one in September 2011, and held onto the top ranking position for just over four years between February 2015 and March 2019.

He has compiled more than 800 century breaks in professional competition, including five maximum breaks, one of which is the only one to have been made during the final of the World Championships.

Between 2014 and 2017, he won the World Championship three times in four years.