World number one Mark Selby’s superb scoring ability is a quality which sometimes goes under the radar but in reaching 500 career centuries he joins an elite list of only five players in the game to have reached the milestone.
He now sits proudly alongside four other world champions Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Neil Robertson with five centuries of centuries.
Selby is a wonderful player proved by his runaway position at the top of the world rankings and more pertinently his capture of three world titles in the last four years. But you ask many and it’s his battling qualities, his shot making ability, his coolness under pressure and from behind which stand out to most as his key strengths.
But you don’t win much in this game if you can’t score heavily and Selby is as devastating as any of the top players when he gets going, as this achievement proves without doubt. What strikes me when I watch Selby compiling big breaks is that he rarely takes a pot for granted. His focus on every ball is superb and that’s important in a game where the little things make a big difference.
After a disappointing defence of his UK Championship title in York last month, Selby will come into the new year looking to land another of the big ones with The Masters just over a week away now and the all-important World Championship the crescendo to the season in April.
These are the tournaments Selby places the greatest emphasis on as he knows these are the titles which will ultimately define his legacy in the game. He likes to gather form in perfect time for these tournaments.
As we have seen so many times before, Selby has a habit of hitting great momentum in the second half of the season and did so perfectly last year to win the final two ranking events of the season.
His victory in the Championship League group 2 this week is only a very small start to what he will want to achieve in 2018 but is a sure sign he means business this year. Beating Barry Hawkins in the final and landing his 500th ton is a nice way to get the ball rolling and will get his cueing going without the pressures of a major tournament.
Selby may well feel O’Sullivan had the run of things at the back end of 2017. Is this Selby’s time to strike back?