Oct 19,2024
Mark Selby makes the trip to Belfast this weekend for the Northern Ireland Open looking to tick one bizarre anomaly off his career bucket list.
The man they call the 'Jester from Leicester' is yet to reach the final of a WST tournament played in Ireland, north or south, never mind winning one.
It all started at the Irish Masters, when it was at Citywest, back in 2003 where he would lose in the first round to Stephen Hendry. He was knocked out by David Gray and Jimmy White at the same stage over the next two seasons, before the event fell off the tour.
DCU's Helix Theatre, Galway's Bailey Allen, and the Killarney Convention Centre were to welcome pro tournaments in the early years of the next decade, but still Selby couldn't make it to a decider.
The best he could muster were semi-final appearances in Kerry and Dublin, with Martin Gould and Judd Trump tripping him up, before Belfast took over the hosting of the island's only WST event.
2018 was his best year at the Waterfront Hall, reaching the last four, and pushing the game's greatest ever player all the way, before eventually losing 6-5 to Ronnie O'Sullivan.
"It's gone and you can't dwell on the past so we'll look forward to this week. I'm playing ok so hopefully I can have a good run there."
Indeed Selby's form has picked up at the start of the new campaign, with his victory at last month's British Open his first ranking title in 18 months.
For many of the players on the tour, a tournament triumph every season or two would be enough to keep them going - but not for Selby.
If the 1980s was the decade of Steve Davis, and Stephen Hendry was the undoubted King of the Crucible in the 90s, then Selby's three World Championships in the 2010s - and another in 2021 - made him the preeminent player amongst the post-class-of-'92 generation.
He's also won three Masters crowns, as well as the UK Championship twice, and, of the players who turned pro after that trio of Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams, Selby has spent more time as world number one than any other current player on tour.
Even with all of that on the CV, Selby considers last month's 10-5 triumph over John Higgins to be significant.
"It's huge," he says.
"It's irrelevant what you've won in the past. When you go for a period like that of not winning, you start doubting yourself a little, or questioning yourself at least. You've got the media saying it's been 18 months (without a win).
"I know it's not a long time but when you've done so well previously, you do start questioning yourself. But that shows how tough the game is as well. Judd Trump went nearly two years before he won a competition a few years ago, Neil Robertson after that. If you look at those players, they're still great players now. It's not like they've deteriorated over night.
"The standard is just so tough and you have to just keep believing, be patient, wait your turn, and believe that another tournament (win) is around the corner, rather than just accepting that you're going to go to a tournament and do well every time.
"Confidence is the biggest thing in any sport," he continues.
"It's the here and now, it doesn't matter what you've won 10 or 11 years ago. People say to me that I've won this, or won that, but that's in the past.
"Confidence is the present, and if you're not winning in the present, and you're not doing well, then your confidence is going to take a knock - it doesn't matter who you are.
"If you keep losing and losing - losing early doors, and not getting to the latter stages - then it's got to take some sort of effect. Vice versa though, there's the other side of the coin, when you're high on confidence and you feel like you're unbeatable."
Selby will start his latest attempt to reach the final of a tournament on the island of Ireland against Louis Heathcote - who beat Cork's Aaron Hill in a decider in the qualifiers - on Sunday evening in Belfast.
If he's not going to win the title himself, the 41-year-old reckons the defending champion is the man to beat.
Trump is looking to claim a fifth Northern Ireland Open in seven seasons, and Selby says the 2019 World Champion will be hard to stop.
"He's winning matches; even when he's not playing his A-game he's still coming through. When he does play his A-game, he's very hard to beat.
"He's riding a wave at the moment."
While Selby has battled away on the baize, his wife has faced a much bigger fight off of it.
A talented pool player herself, Vikki was diagnosed with cancer back in 2022. She was always a prominent figure in the BBC's coverage during her husband's world triumphs, cheering him on from the gantry at the Crucible.
Thankfully, Vikki is doing better now, but the seriousness of her illness, coupled with mental health struggles which Selby has spoken about previously, has given the world number five a new perspective on the game's place in his life.
"Even if you have a few bad tournaments, you're still ok," he says.
"It's made me realise, with things that have gone on outside of snooker, that it is just a game, at the end of the day.
"Health is more important than anything."
All Selby can do is keep going, and that mindset could see him finally see get over the line at the Waterfront Hall on Sunday week.
