Exclusive: Mark Selby Fires Crucible Warning with Welsh Open Victory

Mark Selby fired an early warning shot to his World Championship rivals as he pocketed a second ranking title of the season at the Welsh Open. 

The four-time world champion, 41, is the sport’s ultimate match-player and knows exactly what it takes to be the last man standing after snooker’s 17-day Sheffield marathon. 

World No.3 Selby ended an 18-month ranking-title drought at the British Open back in September before going quiet during the middle part of the campaign.

But winning the Championship League in Leicester at the start of the month gave Selby a welcome confidence boost and he cashed in in style by beating Stephen Maguire 9-6 to win a second Welsh Open title just two months before the green-baize game’s top stars descend on the Crucible.

“I’ll go there confident, I can’t not,” Selby told SportsBoom.com. 

“This season so far, even when I’ve not done well in some of the tournaments and I’ve gone out early doors in the last 32 or last 16, I still feel like I’ve played okay.”

“There haven’t been many matches where I can single out a really poor performance.”

“Against [Jack] Lisowski in the UK I felt like I played good and he played great. Xiao Guodong in the Champions of Champions in the semis, I felt like I played good and he played great.”

“I knew it was there. It was just about getting that momentum and stringing some wins together. I hadn’t been doing that since September in the British Open. This week it all sort of came together.”

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

Selby cut a frustrated figure at the backend of last season and even suggested he could quit the sport after being knocked out in the first round of the World Championship. 

That coincided with Selby going through a tough time off the baize as he battled a bout of depression, which the 24-time ranking-event winner has commendably spoken candidly about. 

Snooker is a greater place with Mark Selby in it, especially a smiling and happy Mark Selby. 

Competing for the game’s prizes is what he does best, but his sense of humour behind the scenes really helps on the long days away from home on the circuit. 

The Jester from Leicester added: “I feel like my back up game is sort of somewhere near where I want it to be. I feel like in the last couple of seasons it’s not been as good as it was in past years.”

“That might have been because of how I was mentally and I possibly wasn’t up for the fight because of how I was feeling.”

“At the moment I feel in a bit of a better place and I’m enjoying the challenge out there hence why I’m probably playing a bit better.”

NO REST FOR THE WICKED

Selby barely has any time to celebrate his latest title triumph as snooker’s hamster wheel goes on. 

He heads to China for next week’s World Open on Tuesday before the 32-player World Grand Prix in Hong Kong the following week.

Asked how he keeps himself fresh over the next fortnight, Selby said: “I fly Tuesday, arrive Wednesday in Beijing. We’re not going to fly to Yushan until Friday so I’ll just rest as much as I can.”

“There’s a club we go to have a bit of practice one of the days. But I’ll just be resting.”

“I play Sunday and we’ll see how that goes. I’ll go there and do my best."

"That’s where it is in the calendar so we’ll go there and then off the back of that straight to Hong Kong. Hopefully I can do well in both of them, if not one of them.”