Selby comeback stuns O’Sullivan

Mark Selby completed a memorable comeback to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Welsh Open final on Sunday. The Leicester man battled back from 8-5 down to beat O’Sullivan 9-8 at the Newport Centre and claim his first world ranking title.

The 24-year-old, who won the Wembley Masters last month, admitted he had surprised himself by his recent form.

“Who’d have thought this?” he said. “Eighteen months ago I was still in the qualifiers at Prestatyn.”

O’Sullivan began the contest as favourite to clinch his 20th ranking victory, a milestone only previously achieved by Stephen Hendry (36) and Steve Davis (28).

And while he was gracious in defeat, he also took a swipe at Selby’s style of play.

I thought Ronnie was going to run away with it Mark Selby

He said: “I play an attacking game and try to grab it by the scruff of the neck. I got away with it early on but Mark was very tactical.

“I don’t know if Mark’s talented; he plays a very negative game. He doesn’t take a ball on unless he’s going to leave it safe.

“It makes him tough to play because you know you’re in for long frames and long bouts of safety.

“It’s hard to get a rhythm against someone like that, but I can’t grumble because I had my chances.”

606: DEBATE Selby is undoubtedly in the elite now. That’s not even up for debate. obzenball2

Selby, beaten in three of his four previous meetings with O’Sullivan, confessed that his tactics had been key to the victory.

He said: “Overall I think scoring-wise Ronnie was obviously the better player. I wasn’t scoring but my safety play kept me in it.

“I didn’t play as good as I did in the Masters final, but I had to go to plan B and thankfully I came through.”

When Selby fell 8-5 behind he was convinced he had no chance of winning.

He added: “I thought Ronnie was going to run away with it, but I nicked a good frame to go 6-5. Then it was 8-5.

“Against Ronnie if you give him a one-frame lead he will go and steamroller it, so to give him four frames I thought there was no chance.”

Selby enjoyed the best of the early exchanges, compiling a 77 break in the first frame then producing a 39 clearance to steal the second on the black for a 2-0 lead.

O’Sullivan finally came to life with a run of 50 in the third and drew level at 2-2 heading into the mid-session interval with a clearance to blue in the fourth.

Those opening four frames took an hour and 34 minutes to complete and the exchanges remained equally bogged down after the restart.

During the fifth, which Selby won thanks primarily to a 51 break, O’Sullivan was twice spotted mouthing “I’m bored.”

But he retained sufficient patience and concentration to secure an extremely scrappy sixth frame, which dragged on for 32 minutes, on the brown.

There was then further stalemate as the seventh and eighth frames were re-racked by referee Eirian Williams after a tactical impasse in both.

Each of the afternoon’s closing two frames featured sizeable contributions – 75 and 60 from Selby to regain the advantage at 4-3 and a 108 from O’Sullivan to tie up the scores heading into the concluding session.

Breaks of 93 and 135 made it 6-4 in only 18 minutes as O’Sullivan took control, but world number five Selby kept himself in touch with a pressure clearance of 72 to reduce his arrears.

O’Sullivan immediately hit back with a 63 break to make sure of the 11th frame, leaving him needing two frames for victory.

He took the next thanks to a 54 break, but Selby rallied to make it 8-6 after pinching the 14th frame.

And the Midlands man pulled even closer with a 62 break to trail by just one frame, before forcing a decider by winning the 18th frame by 14 points

Selby then pocketed a cool 48 break in the decider to lead by 30 points and, after O’Sullivan missed an ambitious double, the Leicester cueman held his nerve to close out the win.

BBC

Matt takes gloss off Kostelic homecoming

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Austria’s Mario Matt won a men’s World Cup slalom on Sunday, spoiling Ivica Kostelic’s homecoming.

Kostelic learned to ski on the Sljeme hill outside Zagreb and had hoped to win the first men’s World Cup slalom to be held in the Croatian capital.

But Matt, a two-time world champion, protected his lead from the first run and won in an aggregate time of 1 minute, 51.36 seconds.

Kostelic was second in 1:51.69, and Reinfried Herbst of Austria finished third at 1:51.76.

“This was my best race of the season and it took place in my city, in front of my fans, who are the best supporters in the world,” Kostelic said.

“I made some mistakes in the second run,” he added.

Bode Miller of the United States, the overall World Cup leader, lost his balance at the bottom of the course and nearly crashed out in the first run.

Although Miller managed to stay on his skis, he finished outside the top 30 and did not qualify for the second run, and failed to pick up any points from Sunday’ race.

Miller’s closest overall challenger, Benjamin Raich of Austria, fell in the second heat, got back up on his skis but finished 26th and did not gain significant ground on Miller.

Matt came down through the 69 gates without a major error to notch his third win of the season and his 11th career victory.

Kostelic has now finished among the top three in the last five races.

Women have raced in Zagreb for four years, but the men had their debut Sunday.

One of the reasons the World Cup circuit visits Zagreb is the Kostelic siblings. Janica, a multiple Olympic champion, is now retired. She also never won on her home hill.

Jean-Baptiste Grange of France crashed out in the second run but maintained his lead in the slalom standings.

CNN

O’Sullivan to face Selby in final

Ronnie O’Sullivan will face Mark Selby in the final of the Welsh Open on Sunday after overpowering in-form Shaun Murphy 6-3.

Chasing his third title of the season, O’Sullivan was in superb form and in the final frame racked up a 143 break – the highest of the tournament so far.

“I knew I had to raise my game because I heard how well Shaun had been playing here,” said O’Sullivan.

“I suppose that did me a favour in that I was more focused.”

Murphy, who won the Malta Cup six days ago, made an encouraging start, stealing the first frame with a 70 clearance after O’Sullivan missed a straightforward pink.

The following three frames were each a story of breaks, 76 and 113 from O’Sullivan, 76 from Murphy as they quickly arrived at the mid-session interval at 2-2. 

I feel the only real difference was that Ronnie got the better chances Shaun Murphy

O’Sullivan’s hot streak continued in the fifth frame as a 101 break enabled him to lead for the first time at 3-2 before Murphy replied by winning a relatively scrappy sixth.

But from that point on O’Sullivan took control, leaving Murphy to mull over a fourth semi-final defeat of the 2007/08 campaign, after also losing at the same stage of the Grand Prix, Northern Ireland Trophy and UK Championship.

“I feel the only real difference was that Ronnie got the better chances,” said Murphy.

“What should be noted is the amount of respect that Ronnie paid me on the table.

“Every time he was playing safe he concentrated on putting the cue ball in the precise position that would make it as tough as possible for me.”

606: DEBATE Ronnie is unstoppable and he will win the Welsh Open final davis147

Now only Selby can prevent O’Sullivan becoming the third player after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry to reach the milestone of 20 world ranking tournament successes.

The man from Leicester beat Stephen Hendry 6-4 to book his place in the final.

Hendry knocked in two century breaks while Masters champion Selby’s highest run was a score of 71 in the fifth frame which edged him 3-2 ahead.

Hendry levelled the match at 4-4 thanks to a superb 124 clearance but the Englishman took the ninth and 10th frames to secure his victory.

“I’m really happy with my game, why shouldn’t I be after the Masters?” said the 24 year-old, referring to his capture of the Masters title at Wembley in January.

“Early doors I was struggling for whatever reason but when I needed to perform I did and that’s what I’ve been doing lately.

Mark kept putting the cue-ball in the most awkward positions possible. You could tell he’s the form man Stephen Hendry

“I couldn’t feel any better than I do at the moment.”

Hendry refused to be too downhearted after reaching his first ranking event semi-final since the 2006 UK Championship.

“Obviously I’m disappointed but I’m still going to take a lot of positives from the week. I’m playing a lot better,” said the 39-year-old former world champion.

“I played well but the difference was Mark’s safety. He was excellent in that department and I wasn’t tight enough.

“Mark kept putting the cue-ball in the most awkward positions possible for me. You could tell he’s the form man.”

bbc