At 3pm on Sunday Mark Selby will break off against John Higgins in the final of the 888.com World Snooker Championship final in the Embassy Theatre in Sheffield. A rank outsider for the championship Selby’s from enroute to the final has been nothing short of sensational. Positioned outside the top 16 in the world, Selby has become only the third qualifier in the history of the game to make the final. Shaun Murphy, last night’s beaten semi-finalist, was the first ever qualifier to win the tournament in 1995 and Selby is hoping to emulate his achievement over the next two days.

Seemingly completely unfazed by any challenge or opponent put before him Selby has been ratcheting up the century breaks for fun. 10 of the 63 century breaks in the tournament so far can be attributed to the 23 year old, with 5 alone in his match against former world champion Peter Ebdon equalling the tournament best for a one game total. But last night's amazing 17-16 victory against Shaun Murphy where he was two frames down with three to play will undoubtedly be the highlight of his career so far. Here's hoping he can finish the job and go all the way.

Selby's meteoric rise to becoming a household name reflects the changing nature of the competitive snooker circuit in the last few years. There are now so many young talented players coming through that any qualifier could pop up and win snooker's greatest prize outright. A decade ago snooker fans could safely assume that the tournament decider would invariably come down to two of the top 10 players on the circuit that year. The likelihood of a Stephen Hendry (8 time world champion) or Steve Davis type domination conquering the snooker fraternity again is very unlikely. Any of the top 32 players can beat each other on any given day. It is a testament to the enduring quality of Steve Davis that he is still ranked #15 in the world. However it seems unlikely that players of the Davis, Parrott and to a less extent Hendry era will lift the trophy again.

Unfortunately from an Irish perspective we don't seem to have any new blood coming through to the professional circuit. Perhaps this is due to the lack of snooker halls in urban areas and to a lesser extent pool tables in ninety-nine percent of city pubs around the country. Maybe no one simply thinks of playing it these days. In any case unless our Ken can get back on that horse he fell off of so early in this year's tournament, it's not looking like we'll have another world champion from these shores any time soon.

Good luck Mark Selby!

tags:[snooker]

Published by Dae.