Selby beats O'Sullivan to win UK Championship

IANS

London, Dec 5 (IANS) World No.1 Mark Selby won his second UK Championship snooker title after beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-7 in a thrilling final.

The 33-year-old becomes only the sixth player to win the World and UK Championship tournaments during the same calendar year here on Sunday, reports Xinhua.

O'Sullivan, bidding to win his sixth UK title, trailed 2-6 following the opening session and lost one more frame in the evening session to go behind 2-7. But he managed to make it 7-8 after two brilliant breaks of 134 and 130 at the Barbican Centre.

Leicester's Selby finally close out the match with back-to-back century breaks of 134 and 107 to secure the title.

Selby said after the match, "It feels amazing. Just to win the UK is a great feeling anyway, but as I said when I won the world for the first time, if I was to go on and win a big tournament I'd like to play Ronnie in the final and to go on and win.

A disappointed O'Sullivan said, "Mark has done well to win so congratulations to him. I was pleased with my attitude. I was pleased that when I came to the table I just played the shot and didn't get bogged down looking around too much, which can happen when you are playing long frames.

"I enjoyed my game, but I just missed too many easy balls to win tournaments, that's probably why I haven't won anything this season."

--IANS

sam/vm

Edited by Staff Editor