World Championship final: Mark Selby 18-15 John Higgins

World Championship final scores (best of 35 frames)

Final (best of 35 frames)

Mark Selby (1) 18-15 John Higgins (6) 

Session one: Selby 2-6 Higgins
Session two: Selby 7-10 Higgins
Session three: Selby 13-11 Higgins
Session four: Selby 18-15 Higgins

Frame scores (Selby first):  

FIRST SESSION: 76-34 (76), 7-50, 121-8 (62, 58), 0-141 (141), 40-99 (63), 1-126 (95), 54-59 (58), 33-68

SECOND SESSION:  86-0 (86),  8-60, 44-74,  69-22,  1-68, 0-76 (76), 81-9 (81),  121-12 (121),  96-17 

THIRD SESSION: 76-1, 53-2, 29-107, 63-40, 68-19 (67), 82-0 (58), 72-0 (72) 

FOURTH SESSION: 72-22, 36-74, 76-1 (71), 134-4 (54, 70), 34-88 (88), 0-119 (111), 47-74, 132-0 (131), 80-19 (75) 

Session four report (Selby wins 18-15)

Mark Selby pulled off one of the most astonishing victories in a Crucible final as he landed his third Betfred World Championship title.

When he trailed John Higgins by 10-4 on Sunday evening, Selby had looked beaten, on the scoreboard and in his cheerless demeanour, but a colossal comeback saw him roll to an 18-15 victory.

There was a moment of huge controversy late in the day, when Selby attempted to roll up behind the black and snooker Higgins, only for referee Jan Verhaas to decide the ball had run up short. 

He called a foul, briefly rowed back on his decision, before reinstating the original call.

Selby seemed nonplussed but gathered his composure, and victory made him just the fourth player to successfully defend a world title in Sheffield, after Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan. 

That level of company reflects Selby's status as a modern-day snooker great.

 Selby said: "It's unbelievable really. I'd hit the wall; I had nothing left.

"To get out 10-7 yesterday I was over the moon.

"I tried to find something and fortunately for me John missed a few balls you wouldn't expect him to miss and gave me a way back into the match."

Higgins, a four-time world champion, must have been thinking a fifth title was coming his way as he took advantage of Selby's obvious languor early in the match, a hangover from the world number one's sapping semi-final against Ding Junhui.

No player had come back to win from a greater deficit than six frames in a World Championship final since Dennis Taylor trailed Steve Davis by 8-0 and 9-1 in their 1985 classic.

Crucially Selby launched his revival late in the day on Sunday, thrusting a fist pump after reeling off three successive frames, and planting the first seeds of doubt into the mind of Higgins.

The seeds became giant oaks of disbelief on Monday afternoon as Higgins saw his lead evaporate and Selby begin to stretch clear.

Decked out all in black, his hair slicked back and preened like a matinee idol, Selby is the clean-cut face of the modern game. 

Three world titles in four years could be followed by several more in the years ahead. 

Higgins forecast before the final began that Selby could match Stephen Hendry's record of seven.

The 33-year-old from Leicester led 13-11 coming into the evening, and withstood a late Higgins flourish to get his hands on the trophy.

O'Sullivan knows exactly how Higgins must have been feeling, having had Selby on the ropes at 10-5 in the 2014 final before falling to a punishing counter-attack.

Blessed with a terrific temperament, Selby knew once he had narrowed the gap to Higgins that the momentum was with him.

O'Sullivan watched the drama unfold from a television studio, and tweeted: "If you want to win events you need to play like selby. It's the new modern way of playing..#lethalsnooker".

Selby's title last year came on the same night that Leicester City won the Premier League title, with even Selby distracted by his football team's success.

This time the glory was all his, the £375,000 top prize taking him to a staggering £930,875 for the season - an all-time high.

Selby also matches the record of five ranking titles in a season, previously achieved by Hendry in 1990/91 and Ding in 2013/14.

At the interval on Monday evening, Selby held a 16-12 lead, having won 12 of the previous 14 frames. 

He headed to his dressing room on the back of a clinical 70 break.

Higgins clipped the lead to three frames with an 88 break, giving wife Denise and their three children in the balcony seats some late hope. 

Every shot felt like a major undertaking but it was a positive response.

It continued from Higgins, who at 41 was the oldest finalist since 49-year-old Ray Reardon lost to Alex Higgins in 1982.

He made 111 to get back to 16-14, before Selby opened a handy advantage in the next frame. 

After making a plant to nudge 47-0 ahead, Selby looked to lay a snooker by trickling up behind the black but left the white apparently short. 

Selby might have been thrown off his game after the frame slipped away but the opposite happened.

After a re-rack in the next frame, prime Selby returned, ploughing in 131, then sealing victory with 75, clenching his fists again and looking up to wife Vikki in delight. Higgins applauded, a classic complete.ends

Higgins, asked about the black-ball controversy, said: "Sometimes it's not black and white I suppose."

Asked about Selby's prospects of further world titles, he added: "I think Mark will add to that, whether it's one, two, three or four. He's the toughest player I've ever played.

"He's just granite, he really is. I take my hat off to him."I still think I can come back next year and give it a good show." 

Click here for all the results and frame scores from the World Championship

Session three report (Selby leads 13-11)

Mark Selby dramatically stormed ahead of John Higgins in the Betfred World Championship final as he began to dominate at the Crucible.

The world number one and defending champion began the second day of the title match trailing by 10-7 but bustled his way to a lead of 13-11.

That left him requiring five frames in the evening to land the trophy for a third time in four years, while shell-shocked Higgins needed to pick himself up from the jolt of losing nine of the last 10 frames.

Selby had trailed 10-4 at one stage on Sunday, looking exhausted after a gruelling semi-final against Ding Junhui, and Higgins appeared all set for a fifth world title of his illustrious career.

But just as he came back from 10-5 adrift to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2014 final, Selby dug deep again. 

The three frames he won consecutively to slash the lead on Sunday night - followed by a Selby fist pump - created a blueprint for Monday's pattern of play.

When the frames became scrappy, it was Selby's safety play that prevailed where previously Higgins was winning the tactical battles. 

Selby was happy to make the frames scrappy too, getting into the mind of his opponent.

When the chances came his way, Selby was taking them rather than producing the errors that scarred his game early in the match. 

He ended the session with breaks of 67, 58 and 72 in consecutive frames, as Higgins stewed in his seat.

O'Sullivan wrote on Twitter: "If john Higgins can't beat selby at the crucible then no one can"

Further twists in the plot could not be discounted, but another world title for Selby would reinforce the sense we are deep into an era of domination by the 33-year-old Leicester cueman.

His triumph last year came on the same night that Leicester City won the Premier League title, and consequently it slipped under many a radar, with even Selby distracted by his beloved football team's success.

This time the glory would be all his, as he bids to become just the fourth player to defend a world snooker title in Sheffield, after Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and O'Sullivan.

Selby and Higgins are playing for the trophy and a £375,000 top prize. If Higgins drags himself off the ropes to make it close, there is the possibility of a late-night finish in store. 

Click here for all the results and frame scores from the World Championship

Session two report (Higgins leads 10-7)

John Higgins thought his days as a Crucible contender were gone but a fifth Betfred World Championship title is in his sights after he secured a three-frame overnight lead in the final against Mark Selby.

An agonising first-round defeat to fellow Scot Alan McManus three years ago led Higgins to conclude he had become a journeyman, but a spectacular turnaround of fortunes could be capped in Sheffield on Monday night.

He leads world number one and defending champion Selby 10-7, a position which could have been even better for the 41-year-old Scot, who left the arena frustrated his opponent had won the final three frames of the day.

A fist-pump showed Selby, despite his three-frame deficit, was the more satisfied man, but he cannot afford another slow start when the match resumes.

Selby joined this battle late, but he trailed Ronnie O'Sullivan by the same margin after day one of their 2014 final and turned the match around to triumph.

This time he seemed tired.

"I'm only 33 but I feel about 53," Selby said after a draining semi-final win against Ding Junhui on Saturday.

And his efforts to come through that high-quality match were a likely factor in his slow start against Higgins, who disregarded his opponent's struggles and focused on developing as commanding a lead as possible.

Only a Selby revival late in the day denied Higgins a lead from which it would have required an unprecedented effort to overturn. No player has come from further behind to win at the Crucible than the eight-frame lead Dennis Taylor afforded Steve Davis in the 1985 final, and when Higgins nudged 10-4 ahead, not only did Selby look exhausted, but the front-running Scot was clearly relishing his task.

It came wholly against the run of play, therefore, when Selby fired consecutive breaks of 81 and 121 and then won the last frame of the day convincingly too.

Usually so precise, so unflappable, for large stretches of Sunday's two sessions Selby's game went missing.

Steve Davis, the six-time world champion, has suffered similarly on occasion and said recently: "Sometimes at the Crucible you can crack up and you can dismantle, and you can't get it back again. The dressing room is a sanctuary to get back to.

"There's times out there at the Crucible where you can't wait to get away and talk to your friends or your coach, to try to pull yourself back together again and put a sticking plaster on your brain.

"I think it's the fact it's so intimate a venue and everyone can see when you've cracked up. You can't hide from anyone in the room."

At one stage in the 11th frame Selby followed the sublime with the ridiculous, draining a high-tariff red and then attempting to roll up behind the green. But he trickled the white a fraction short, fouling, and being snookered Higgins asked him to play again.

Selby found a red but left Higgins with a frame-winning chance that was gobbled up for an 8-3 lead. At that stage Selby was in deep trouble.

Four-time former champion Higgins, who is the oldest finalist since 49-year-old Ray Reardon lost to Alex Higgins in 1982, had predicted before the match began that Selby could one day match a World Championship record.

"He could be the one right now who could challenge (Stephen) Hendry's seven titles," Higgins said. "If he goes ahead and beats me, it'd be his third and he's still a young man."

Selby recently passed a two-year milestone in his unbroken run at number one, and began the final as favourite to lift the trophy and £375,000 top prize.

For Higgins this is a first world final since 2011, when he beat Judd Trump, and he showed vintage class early on with a total clearance of 141 in frame four, just two points shy of his highest ever Crucible break and the joint best in a final, matching O'Sullivan's 2012 effort against Ali Carter.

Click here for all the results and frame scores from the World Championship

Session one report (Higgins leads 6-2)

John Higgins seized on a nervy start from Mark Selby to take early charge of the Betfred World Championship final on Sunday.

Heading into the two-day match, Higgins had predicted Selby might one day match Stephen Hendry's record of seven Crucible titles.

But four-time winner Higgins, who at 41 is the oldest finalist since 49-year-old Ray Reardon lost to Alex Higgins in 1982, is determined to prevent the Leicester cueman landing title number three this year.

And he ruthlessly capitalised on an unusually poor start from Selby to snatch a 6-2 lead after the first session in Sheffield.

The best-of-35-frame match in theory allows a player to recover from such deficits, as Dennis Taylor proved when coming back from 8-0 adrift of Steve Davis in their 1985 final.

But records show that no player has come back to win from a first-session deficit as wide as 6-2 to take the title since that famous Taylor fightback.

In his first world final since 2011, when he beat Judd Trump, Higgins showed vintage class with a total clearance of 141 in frame four, just two points shy of his highest ever Crucible break.

Runs of 63 and 95 saw him pull 4-2 ahead of Selby, who should have cut the gap but missed a red when 54-1 ahead in the next frame and a clearance of 58 from his opponent was immaculate.

Such sessions from world number one Selby are rare, and for Higgins it was important he took full advantage, so by edging frame eight it struck a major blow, ahead of the evening resumption.

Yet Higgins knows all about Selby's battling qualities, and came into the match singing his praises.

"He could be the one right now who could challenge Hendry's seven titles," Higgins said.

"If he goes ahead and beats me, it'd be his third and he's still a young man.

"But he's not like Hendry as a player - Hendry couldn't win the tough frames, he'd blow you away. Mark's more like Steve Davis."

Higgins called Selby "a big favourite" for the title. Such remarks were probably designed to lift pressure from his own shoulders, with Higgins quietly confident he stood an outstanding chance of lifting the trophy on Monday evening.

"I'm very proud to be in my sixth world final, and it's a great feeling to be going for my fifth world title," said the 41-year-old Scot.

In his third final, back in 2007, Higgins beat a 23-year-old Selby who had come through qualifying before making a surprise run through the draw.

"After that tournament I told him, 'I know you're disappointed but don't be because you're definitely going to come back and win this thing'," Higgins recalled.

"He's proven that, and now he's going for his third one and he's going to maybe be emulating Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry by retaining it. He's a special player."

Selby's memory of that match are foggy, but he remembers well that the third session of the match had to be clipped two frames short because of the pedestrian pace. The match finished at almost 1am on the Tuesday morning.

"I remember I got back from 12-4 to 12-10 and we were pulled off, which doesn't surprise me, the way I play," Selby said.

"John seemed to be mentally not with it, missing a lot of easy balls and giving me chance after chance. I'd have probably come out 12-12 from that session and who knows, it might have been my year then. To get to that final so young I think stood me in good stead for the future."

In recent years Selby has become the dominant player in the sport, and landing world titles in 2014 and 2016 have established him ahead of the likes of Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan as the man to beat.

He is enjoying an unbroken two-year spell as world number one, but it will be tough to sustain the level of success, just as Higgins has found.

"Everyone has blips in their career where they go through bad patches and John's been no different," Selby said.

"But when he's at his peak he's one of the greatest of all time."

Click here for all the results and frame scores from the World Championship