Mark Selby admits he feels like a fraud ahead of a mouth-watering Champion of Champions semi-final on Friday night against Judd Trump – but is still targeting a first success in the tournament.
Four-time world champion Selby was the only player in the original field of 16 that did not win a title in the previous 12 months – but squeaked in off his world number four ranking.
But Leicester Jester Selby goes into the showdown at the University of Bolton Stadium both in better form and also a much improved frame of mind after being brutally frank and honest about mental health challenges earlier this year.
READ MORE:
- Trump wants snooker catering to the youth
- Higgins fears Hendry backlash
- Champion of Champions betting with Betfred*
Selby, 39, said: “I was the only player in the field of 16 this year that hadn’t actually won a tournament of any sort and got in off my world ranking – so I do feel I have cheated the event by being in it.
“In the past few years, of course, I have been in on merit and there have been other players who got in via the same way, and sometimes ranked lower. In all the other years when I played in this tournament and had got in by merit I have done no good at all, so I came here this year thinking I am on a free shot.
“I wasn’t meant to be in it, I got in via the back door, but I am still in it after the group stage and have got as far as I ever have – so who knows what might happen. “It would be quite ironic and sweet if this was the year I could lift the trophy. The tournament is called the Champion of Champions, and I wasn’t one for the previous 12 months!
“Maybe it is a bit harsh that I am in it at all, but there were only 15 winners of the various events and so they had to go to the ranking list. There were other class players that hadn’t won a title like Mark Williams who just missed out, Shaun Murphy, Stuart Bingham – it is not an easy one to get into.
“Definitely the last couple of tournaments I have been feeling more out there the things that I feel when I am playing well, winning and enjoying my snooker. The first few matches in Belfast at the Northern Ireland event I didn’t play well, but against Neil Robertson in the quarter-final I felt really good. If I had potted a blue and gone 3-1 up, that could have finished differently.
“But I genuinely thought I was capable of winning the title and that is something I have not really had for the last year or so due to how I have been mentally, being down and not having faith in myself. Now I am in a better place, I am working hard on the practice table, enjoying it, feeling good about my game and I think it showed in the first two matches in Bolton.
“I always give it everything, but if you are happy off the table then with me I have to be scraped off the table before losing. Beating John Higgins in a best of 11 as I did in the group final on Monday, you have to be playing well. And I am back thinking I can win any event. It was only the last year or so where I wavered a bit on that because I wasn’t in a good place mentally.
“Snooker is such a funny game. You can go from playing terribly to the very next day something clicks and you are on top of your game.”
Former world champion Trump, 33, was in blistering form in a 6-1 demolition of Mark Allen on Wednesday night. And he is savouring the prospect of a rare meeting with the rejuvenated Selby at the business end of a big event in recent years.
Trump said: “Mark Selby and I haven’t played in a big tournament in a semi-final or a final for absolutely ages so it is a mouth-watering game to look forward to. And you have to play well against the top players, I have got a bit found out in those games so far this season at other events.
“It is amazing to see Mark back at the top of his game, and he is there waiting in the wings to nick a big title.
“The nature of the win over Mark Allen didn’t surprise me, I knew how well I was playing in practice and it helped knowing how well Mark has been playing this season, I knew I had to be at that standard.”
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
