Their last epic was one of the matches of the season last year at the NI Open, and 2 years before that they appeared in the UK Championship final. It’s quite a rare thing to see Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan go head-to-head nowadays but whenever it does, I move everything around to be able to watch their matches. Click here to read the breakdown I wrote on their last Instant Classic.
The game opened with a prepared Selby ready to deal with the O’Sullivan fist bump, utilising a rock, paper, scissors strategy; or according to Neil Foulds, the ‘paper, scissors, stones’ approach. Often forgotten that Selby is the Jester from Leicester, circumstances like this show that he still has that sense of humour.
Anyway, the first two frames saw each player exchange centuries, with Selby making a 120 in the first, despite O’Sullivan having the first opportunity; and a 123 response from O’Sullivan, taking advantage of a Selby long pot attempt which scattered the reds. Frame 3 was probably the scrappiest of the match which Selby was able to take with a little help from O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan did have his chances in this frame though, particularly when Selby tried to nestle behind the brown and just fell short (by millimetres), leaving a free ball. This didn’t impact O’Sullivan though as he levelled with a 113 break at the interval.
Frame 5 saw another century from O’Sullivan. This was the fourth century in five frames at this point in the match. The century break was compiled with 13 reds and 12 blacks at which point O’Sullivan switched to pink but couldn’t continue to clear. Selby took a couple chances due to running out of position to take frame 6, aided by a 47 break. Breaks of 42 and 46 pushed O’Sullivan in Frame 7 to take a 4-3 lead.
Selby strung a 56 to claim Frame 8 and force a decider. However, a turning point in this match was the foul that was called on a safety shot played by O’Sullivan which definitely hit. It was interesting how this was handled considering what happened with Mark Allen earlier this week. When O’Sullivan had to retake the shot, he left a long red which Selby potted and then made his 56, which is why many were upset with how this situation was managed.
And much like the NI Open semi-final last year, we have another decider. O’Sullivan played a tremendous opener against the cushion but didn’t play his next couple of shots well. Selby did well to make a frame winning contribution but when he sunk the frame winning red, he couldn’t pot the following black to stop O’Sullivan coming back to the table. O’Sullivan continued and managed to get a snooker on Selby which he missed, but an unfortunate kiss on the green on his next shot left the red hovering over the bottom right pocket which Selby potted to close out the match. Another fist bump and Selby progresses to the semis.
The only head-to-head that I would look forward to more than Trump/Robertson is an O’Sullivan/Selby matchup. As always, their matches prove to be close and showcase the strengths and characteristics of both players’ respective playstyles. This time around proved no different. O’Sullivan displayed his century break-building prowess while Selby exhibited his top level safety and ability to turnover scrappy frames.
What I particularly like about these two players is that they bring out the best in each other. Given O’Sullivan’s recent playstyle, he knows and respects Selby enough to bring out his serious game when playing him. Also, over recent years they’ve built up quite a good rapport with each other and hopefully we see them do a lot more punditry together, much like they did on Eurosport during the WSC 2018. It’s a lot rarer to see O’Sullivan and Selby contest each other these days which is why I look forward to and make time to watch them play (as well as writing on them).
For now, Selby progresses to the semi-finals of the Scottish Open, looking to add another Home Nations title to his recently collected English Open trophy. As for O’Sullivan, that next ranking win still eludes him in order to break the tie he holds with Hendry, but like the 7-time Champion always said: it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Another great match between two of my favourites, and I will be here when they do it again!