The Championship League may be the least attention-grabbing event on the calendar but its influence could be felt at the biggest tournament in the spot after Mark Selby’s win on Wednesday night.
The Jester from Leicester was in brilliant form over the two days of the Winners’ Group, , knocking in seven centuries as he beat the likes of Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson, Stuart Bingham and then Joe O’Connor in the final.
It is the first title of a season that has been steady, if unspectacular, for the 40-year-old, but one that appears to be coming to the boil at the right time.
Selby was impressive in his semi-final run at the Players Championship last month and after adding another trophy to his vast cabinet, he is sounding confident again. Nothing over the top, but the belief is returning.
‘I felt like I played ok over the last two days, played some good stuff,’ he said after winning the Championship League with a 3-1 victory over O’Connor.
‘I scored the majority of the time when I got my chances, happy with the way I played. I feel like I’m playing some good stuff at the moment.’
Speaking earlier in the tournament of the ever-looming presence of the World Championship, Selby said it is not necessarily about having the most sparkling form, but more that he must head to Sheffield with a positive attitude.
‘For me it’s about being in a good frame of mind,’ the four-time world champ told Metro.co.uk. ‘If I’m going there to enjoy it then I’ve got a chance and that’s all you can ask for.
‘It’s a tough tournament to win. You look at Neil [Robertson] when he’s been the player of the season going into the World Championsihp and then fell away quite early.
‘I’ll just go there, hopefully with the best mindset I can have and give it my best shot.’
The Championship League is clearly relatively small fry compared to the events that the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Mark Allen have won this season, but with Selby’s Crucible CV, it doesn’t really matter where his confidence boost comes from beforehand to make him a serious threat in Sheffield.
The world number five has been to five of the last 10 Crucible finals, winning four of them.
He was already looking and sounding good at the Players Championship as he demolished O’Sullivan 6-0 in the quarter-finals and seemed to put some concerns about his game behind him.
‘The biggest thing is for me, when I’m not winning I’m a tinkerer and I try and tweak tings,’ he said after whitewashing the Rocket and beating Barry Hawkins in the opening round.
‘Those two performances there after the interval against Barry and against Ronnie have proved to me that what I’m doing now I just need to carry on doing, win or lose.
‘That’s the biggest thing for me, so I can put that to bed, I can just go out there and play. The game’s hard enough without thinking of how to play, which is how I’ve been for weeks.
‘I felt happy with my game, I felt calm. It’s a huge game, if you can’t get up for matches like that then you may as well put your cue away. I felt calm, I felt confident that I could win, which is a big thing against Ronnie.’
With the haul of trophies O’Sullivan has won this season, the question many will be asking before Sheffield is, who can stop the Rocket? Selby is undoubtedly one of the few answers.
The Jester also had some kind words for his opponent in Wednesday’s final after O’Connor sprung a few surprises to reach the showpiece.
The all-Leicester final in Leicester came about thanks to O’Connor beating Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson, Stuart Bingham and John Higgins in the same day, which will go down as one of the most memorable of his career so far.
Selby has known the 28-year-old since his early days as a pool player and is pleased to see how far he has come.
‘It was a tough group, some great players in it, Joe’s done brilliantly to get to the final after yesterday,’ said Selby. ‘Played three, won one it wasn’t looking great so today he’s played some good stuff.
‘It was nice to get the win but even if I didn’t win, if there was anyone I was going to lose to I would have been chuffed for Joe.
‘The club I used to go to. The 147 club, we used to play county pool there and Joe used to come in and play pool. He was a late developer playing snooker but 8 ball he was brilliant and snooker he is brilliant now too.’
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