English Open final score and report: Mark Selby beats David Gilbert 9-1
Mark Selby claimed his first ranking title in over a year after beating David Gilbert with a dazzling display in the final of the English Open in Crawley.
After a frustrating 24 months where inconsistency has crept into his previously rock-solid game, Selby finally found the form he has been searching for with a flawless display of snooker that included a host of big breaks and left Gilbert chained to his chair for much of the match.
The damage was done in the opening session on Sunday afternoon, Selby barely making an unforced error as he reeled off breaks of 88, 68, 79, 85, 130 and 97 to evoke memories of his golden run between 2014 and 2017 where won the World Championship three times in four years.
Gilbert did manage a century of his own, a break of 101 in frame six, but that would be his only moment of cheer in one of the most-sided ranking finals in recent memory as Selby put himself on the cusp of victory by building an almost unassailable 7-1 lead going into the evening session.
Faced with a mountain to climb, Gilbert came out fighting when play resumed and would have hoped he'd done enough to win the first frame of the night when opening up with a break of 51.
However, Selby produced more granite snooker to steal the frame on the colours before closing out the match in much the same manner as he had played the rest of the final, knocking in another immaculate century to take him over the winning line and seal his return to winning ways.
Selby told Eurosport afterwards: "Unbelievable. It's been a long time, probably 12-15 months since I won my last tournament.
"It's been tough. I've obviously been second guessing myself for the last year, thinking 'am I doing everything right, do I need to change anything? but all my close family and friends told me to carry on believing and thankfully I did.
"I got off to a great start and that settled the nerves even more. It's fantastic.
"To play Dave in a final was an absolute privilege. In my eyes it's only a matter of time until he wins one - you can't be as good as him and not win tournaments."
Selby sublime in afternoon session
In his bid to claim the first ranking-title success of his career, Gilbert would have hoped to quickly stamp his authority on the match but he was forced to watch on in the early exchanges as Selby laid down his marker in ruthless fashion, breaks of 88, 68 and 79 seeing him race into a 3-0 lead.
Any hopes that Selby would take his foot off the pedal were quickly extinguished when the former world number one won frame four with more masterful break building, one visit again enough as he added a run of 85 to extend his lead to 4-0 and leave Gilbert with plenty to ponder following a mini-session in which he could only muster a total of 14 points.
Upon the resumption, 4-0 soon became 5-0 after Selby got the better of a more closely-contested frame five but to his credit, Gilbert responded in fine style, a classy hand of 101 bringing up the first century of the match and finally allowing him to get a frame on the board.
The respite ended there, however, Selby reasserting his dominance with a fabulous total of clearance of 130 in frame seven before finishing his afternoon's work with more of the same, a run of 97 stretching his lead to 7-1 at the conclusion of a thoroughly impressive opening session, one which ensured there would be no way back for Gilbert.