Selby marks Antwerp victory

Mark Selby - the 2013 Antwerp Open champion

Mark Selby recorded a very important victory by facing the current world champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan in the Antwerp Open final. 

The beautiful snooker "love affair" ended on a tight 4-3 scoreline and even though we've only had seven frames to see these two snooker masters at work, we had it all: drama, misses, crazy pots, fouls, scrappy moments, mistakes, brilliancy -  twist and turns in one word (or in two words if you don't count the "and").

Both Mark and Ronnie had a very good and steady run throughout the entire tournament, so it came as no surprise to see them as the last two men standing on the brink of glory.

Selby had an old demon in his wardrobe as last year he missed the chance to lift that shiny trophy after losing by an excruciating 4-1scoreline to Mark Allen; so he had to do something and not let the history repeat itself.

Ronnie and his sideburns

Easily said than done when your opponent is the man-of-the-moment, with sideburns and a bit of grey hair, Ronnie O'Sullivan. A simply long red and the reigning world champion was in the game, 74 points later claiming the first frame.

But the Jester fought back and with runs of 39 and 25 he drew level at one a piece. 

Sadly though an early miss at the beginning of the 3^rd frame was smoothing Ronnie's way to hit a great 54 break and move once again in front, at 2-1.

You would think that a 52 was quite enough for Selby to restore the equality on the scoreboard during the next frame, but you couldn't be more wrong. More since O'Sullivan had other plans in mind, plans that consisted in breaks of 22 and 36, which were taking him one step closer to the finish-line.

The Jester unleashed

To this the 2012 UK Championship winner responded with a marvellous set of 61 and 133 to force the decider and keep his hopes alive.

In this last frame-encounter Selby started with his left foot, as a careless foul was awarding his opponent 7 points and a chance to start potting.

Unfortunately for Ronnie this was clearly not his night, a missed black off its spot at 28 resuming his contribution to this match.

Selby sealed his victory with a great 77 break for a loud and clear coronation and a pretty awesome check of €25,000. Well done, the Jester!