Mark Selby is eyeing up snooker’s greatest prizes after Champion of Champions glory, having been ‘nowhere near’ in the last couple of seasons.
The Jester from Leicester triumphed in his home city on Sunday night, impressively beating Judd Trump 10-5 to land the Champion of Champions title for a first time.
The 42-year-old had a testing run to the final, beating Stephen Maguire, Mark Williams and Neil Robertson to set up a clash with the world number one.
There he made four centuries, three of which came in the final three frames, to get his hands on the trophy and the £150,000 top prize.
It was a brilliant win for Selby but his attention immediately turned to the Triple Crown titles after something of a dry spell for him in the sport’s most prestigious events.
He has won the World Championship four times, the UK Championship on two occasions and the Masters thrice, but has not claimed any of those titles since 2021 at the Crucible. His last UK triumph was 2016 and Masters in 2013.
Now comes a defining period of the snooker season with the UK Championship in York starting this month and the Masters in London in January. Then comes the Crucible in April and Selby is focussed on landing at least one of those most meaningful titles.
‘My target has always been those Triple Crowns,’ Selby told ITV4. ‘During the season if you can pinch one of them…I know it’s not easy.
‘That’s where I see myself. When you look back in years to come on the all-time greats It’s basically like the Grand Slams in tennis, you look at Djokovic and all them. Our Triple Crows are the Worlds, Masters and UK.
‘I always look to set my stall out to win one of them in a season. The last few seasons I’ve been nowhere near, but hopefully this year a bit better.’
It was actually as recently as 2023 that Selby reached a Crucible final, so he is doing himself a slight disservice, but that run has been followed by back-to-back first round exits.
The Jester’s nine Triple Crown titles mean he is level with John Higgins in that regard, only behind Ronnie O’Sullivan (23), Stephen Hendry (18) and Steve Davis (15).
The Champion of Champions is Selby’s first title of the season and he feels he has struck upon something of his game he thinks can lead to more success.
He explained: ‘I was saying to my friend, even at 3-1 down at the interval, I said: “Whatever happens today I feel like I’ve found something. If I win, great. If I lose, I felt like something was coming, whether it was next week or the week after.”
‘I know that what I’m doing now is what I need to stick to, because I’ve always been a tinkerer over the years but I know that obviously what I’m doing there, I feel confident and good doing it.’
‘There was no way I could win with that cue’
Trump was in contrasting mood on Sunday, not feeling confident or good in his game and it looks like his experiment with a new cue is at an end.
After seven years with his previous cue, the Ace adopted a new stick this season but teething problems now seem to be permanent and it looks like another change is coming.
The world number one was not at his best again last week, but when it was suggested to him that positives could be taken from a run to the final despite his struggles, he was not on board.
‘Not really no. There’s no positives,’ he said. ‘Firstly congratulations to Mark, I think he was the best player all week and he thoroughly deserved to win this trophy. No excuses, he was the better player throughout the tournament and he fully deserved to win. It’s nice for him to win here in Leicester.
‘I couldn’t win, to be honest, there was no way I could win with that cue. I’m not going to make excuses, I chose to use that cue, I gave it my absolute all I just can’t get used to it.
‘Tonight I really struggled on the table, I didn’t know where to aim at all and Mark played really, really well he put me under pressure.
‘He scored extremely heavy in the last couple of frames. His long potting was good, his safety was good. He showed why he is of the greats of the game.’
Trump goes to the UK Championship this month as defending champion but now looks set to be in the unusual position of using a brand new cue for a major tournament.
He heads to Saudi Arabia this week for the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in his last competitive action before his title defence at the Barbican.
Riyadh and York provide Trump with his final two chances to win an event in 2025, with the possibility that this will be the first year to go without silverware since 2013.