DAQING, China, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The same place, the same champion, Mark Selby defeated Mark Allen 10-7 in the final of 2017 World Snooker International Championship held in Daqing, China to become the first player who defends his title in this tournament on Sunday.
Allen won eight times in their previous 15 clashes while Selby took the early lead this afternoon with a 67-point break in the beginning frame. Allen tied the match 1-1 with the 73rd century break of this year's tournament, which equalled the total number of last year.
The defending champion showed no mercy in the rest of the afternoon as he finished the first session of the final with a 6-3 lead in the best-of-19 final.
"If I didn't think I can beat Mark Selby, I wouldn't be here." Mark Allen proved what he said by winning another three frames. Selby had the chance to finish the match when he was leading by 9-5 but the dropped cue ball gave Allen another chance. He cut the deficit down to 7-9 before shaking hands with Selby after the 74-7 17th frame.
"I still felt at 9-7 I had a good chance, though I didn't play anywhere near my best today. In the first session Mark just played very well, I had lot of chances in the second session but I struggled. It's hard to know why, I didn't play my best till the end." said the runner-up after the match.
"Obviously very very happy to be the winner. It's a great game from the start to finish, we both played well all day. And I didn't give Mark a lot of chances." said the happy champion. This is also the 1000th day he sit on the No.1 ranking of snooker world. "It's a fantastic achievement, especially in today's standard of snooker. To be there for that long is obviously a great feeling. Just thanks to hard work, enjoyment, and just keep practicing and working hard."
After this final, he also tied Ding Junhui with 13 ranking events titles. "It's great to be on the same level as Ding, but he is a lot younger than me so he has a lot of time on his side." said Selby.
"To get 13 is great but I don't want to stop here. Hopefully I can win a lot more before I become an old man." Selby added.
