2017 World Snooker Championship (Day 15) - A Selby v Higgins Final

After a tremendous day of cue-crossings we are finally in possession of the players' name that will grace us with their snooker skills in the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship final: Mark Selby and John Higgins.

Mark Selby and Ding Junhui met in a re-match of last year's World Snooker Championship final, the history repeating itself and naming Selby as winner. The Jester beat Ding 17-15.

The lads came into their last session on a tie (12-12), but Selby hit the first blow and won two frames in a row thanks to solid contributions of 74 and 96.

Ding responded quickly by taking the next frame, but ended up losing the one just before the mid-session interval after a tactical battle on the colours that saw Selby win it with just a top run of 41 for a 15-13 lead.

At returning into the arena Selby made the most of a pretty scrappy 29th frame, only to see Ding fighting back and winning the next one on the black to which he added a 73 break to trail 16-15.

But Ding's form from the last three sessions was no-where near, while Selby's will to win and defend his world title were helping him craft a break of 72 to end the match with a classical roar of "Come on!" and book his place in the final.


John Higgins and Barry Hawkins disputed their last two sessions today, the Scotsman keeping his advantage from 10-6 up.

Despite the fact that "The Hawk" was the one to win the first frame, Higgins won no less than seven frames in a row!

He restored the four-frame advantage by winning frame 18 with just a run of 42 points, to which he added a frame won on the pink, one on the black and breaks of 48, 45 and 90 to go 16-7 in front.

One more frame was to be played that session, but Hawkins managed to prolong the suspense and took it in grand style with a run of 58.

But when the players returned for their last session, Higgins put together a great 120 break to close the deal at 17-8.

So, here we are: the GRAND FINAL featuring the names of Mark Selby and John Higgins.

As we all know it, Selby is a two-time world champion and holds the current world title, while Higgins is a four-time world champion with a tremendous history at the Crucible and beyond that.

If both players will come up in great form and display that beautiful snooker that both of them are capable of, then we are on for such a treat in the next two days!

Cue the action!

Sunday's match schedule:

2pm
Mark Selby v John Higgins

7pm
Mark Selby v John Higgins

* all hours are UK time

Photos credit: World Snooker