As the final ranking event of the decade, we viewed a contest between two competitors of opposing styles and more importantly, experiences. Surprisingly, the inexperienced Jack Lisowski had a 4-3 winning record over World No. 6 Mark Selby coming into this final, with their most recent outing occurring in this year’s Shanghai Masters. It’s now a different tournament and a different stage, with the stakes much higher.
Breakdown
Despite it being a fairly scrappy affair, I’ll try to summarise. Lisowski got off to a great start in Frames 1 and 2 with breaks of 73, 58 and then a 55 following an unfortunate in-off from Selby to race into a lead. What made the start even better for Lisowski was the safety battle on the final red in Frame 2, which he managed to take from Selby. However, the in-off in Frame 2 was reciprocated for Selby as Lisowski fouled a red while potting a blue in Frame 3. Selby was able to make a 78 and a 75 in Frame 4 (with a wonderful split off the black) to level at the interval.
This was where Selby’s experience and fortitude started to turn the tide of the match. Despite Lisowski taking Frame 5, it took a re-rack and 3 attempts to win the frame, something that we’re not used to seeing from him. After missing a ‘relatively easy blue’ in the words of Joe Johnson in Frame 6, Selby was able to make one of the two centuries in the match, with a 117. Much like Frame 5, Selby took a handful of attempts to win Frame 7 (including the safety bout) and punished Lisowski losing position in Frame 8 to win the first session of the final.
Lisowski started strong coming back in the evening with a 119 break however, Selby wasn’t about to relinquish control over this match. Frame 10 saw the epic fluke from Selby as he cut a red into the left corner. Despite no hand raised, I’m convinced it was a fluke due to it being his 3rd warning shot of the frame. A pattern which emerged in this session was Lisowski not capitalising on Selby’s misses, something that did occur in this frame. Similar to Frame 3 though, the fluke then returned to Lisowski as he was able to make an 80 after a good Selby safety.
Frame 12 was an example of Selby’s hard-fought style and temperament. It was the longest frame of the match, going over 48 minutes but displayed brilliant safety and patience from the expert tactician. There wasn’t much in terms of one-visit contributions produced in this final as Selby took a couple attempts to pinch Frame 13, which included a wonderful follow through shot to go into a cluster of reds.
It was a good effort from Lisowski to try and make something happen to keep his chances of winning alive as he made breaks of 65 and 58 to take the 14th frame. However, Selby’s tenacity and experience saw him get over the winning line to secure his second Home Nations title; and also become the only person to win more than one Home Nations event in a single season.
Afterthoughts
Lisowski has had a brilliant week in Scotland, beating the likes of Higgins, Un-Nooh and Allen along the way. He performed far better this final than he did in his previous two endeavours which shows he is taking a step in the right direction. His overall performance is on the rise but he just needs to focus on being a bit more patient and better with his shot selection.
He reminds me a lot of a younger Judd Trump in the way that he plays and while it does provide an exciting way to play, it’s not a guaranteed method to becoming a serial winner like Trump, or his opponent, Selby. As soon as Trump adjusted his playstyle…well, we know what happened. Once Lisowski can do that, he can and will enter the winners circle. For now, he also needs to focus on getting to more ranking finals to become more comfortable in that environment.
It was a final filled with flukes, re-racks, scrappy frames and the occasional century, but Mark Selby was able to manage his way through the final in the way which has seen him be so successful in his career thus far. I’ve said this multiple times before (maybe not in a post, but definitely out loud) but no one dictates the pace of a snooker game like Selby. He controls the game to play exactly how he wants it, and can adapt when it is necessary.
It’s difficult to make a case against Selby being the most successful player of the decade. In this decade, he has won 16 ranking titles, more than any other player (O’Sullivan and Trump have both won 14); was No. 1 from 2012-19, holding that position for over 4 years without challenge; won 3 World Championships in four years, 2 Masters and 2 UK’s in a period which could be classified as the most competitive in snooker history. It shouldn’t be a surprise that a player of his stature would be claiming the final ranking title of the 2010s because it certainly is fitting. Well played, Mark.
*Editor Note: For these finals breakdowns, I have decided to separate them between the actual match breakdown and afterthought analysis. Hopefully, this will make it easier for those who want to just read a particular portion of the post. Even though this isn’t the final post of the year, it certainly feels like it and I want to thank everyone who has read and visited Snooker Shorts up until now!