2014 World Championship - Discussion

[Masterdoctorgenius]

first of all, congratualtion to selby and all his fans.

he deserved it. showed true grit and determination and was the better player on the 2nd day.

Ronnie, chin up. you had great last three years. 2 titles and final. wasnt meant to be. missed some key shots. but it is human nature. you win some, you lose some. And as long as you play you can maybe some more WC.even if not, you will remain a legend

once again, congrats to all selby fans. ur man deserved it.

[Cov86]

I consider myself a neutral for this final as I don't particularly like Selby or ROS for different reasons. I just was hoping for a great match.

However I agree with vmax above. Was a really disappointing final. I didn't even watch the last few frames (normally the most exciting bit) as it was just torturous snooker.... and I say that as someone who normally enjoys the tactical scrappy frames.

Selby is no doubt a very good player and mentally rock solid as most players would have all but given up at 8-4 down. However his tactics of slowing the game down (frequently over a 1 min to decide on safety shots) and playing very negative snooker is not great to watch.

From ROS's side I was quite disappointed at his inability to cut through those tactics; he got totally sucked in and can only blame himself after losing a massive lead. However I was impressed with his gracious runner up speech and his attitude is much better than in previous years.

Overall the match 'never got going' for me. I even felt like the commentary team were struggling to enjoy the game....... I think everyone was expecting fireworks and it was a bit of a let down in the end.

[j6uk]

yes ron's break off was always tying the black up witch suited selby, safety very poor (hitting most thick or thin), his new hair style and new tips also didn't help matters dealing with the pressure on the final day.

[j6uk]

Quite simply, Selby broke him. If people cannot accept or understand that then possibly if they study and learn a bit more they will develop a knowledge of the game that allows them to appreciate what is going on.

Selby was mentally tough enough to overcome Robertson and then Ronnie, if people are to ignorant to credit him for overcoming the best two players in the world then more fool them.

The red Ronnie took on in the second last frame was the questionable shot selection of a desperate man, yes, he'd have got it when miles in front of Hawkins but the truth is Selby made him miss. Well done to the new world champ.

i see this as reflective as your understanding of the match is rather simplistic

[attilahun]

Luck certainly was with Selby in the whole match that was obvious from early on,in my view the person who cannot score more than 50 points in the whole match and cannot clear a frame at one visit at least one time, cannot be proud of himself to win in the way we all saw yesterday .He freezed his oponents rythm and probably because this is the only way to beat Ronnie o Sullivan.The only person who really ever stood against Ronnie was John Higgins.

Exactly.....i am sorry for Mark, who is better than that but what he showed in this final was the style of play that only small names or small teams use against a strong favorite. It showed how afraid Selby is to take the game to Ronnie and play proper snooker.
I read a lot of post about Selbys all round game and genius, maybe i dont understand this game at all but you can play a tactical game without grinding every frame or try to break the match rhythm every time around.
In my eyes in this final Selby acted like a small and pathetic player who can not play the game as well as his opponent and won it using alternative methods. He played like Dott did when he won the title. I cant compare him with Ebdon, because Ebdon played a great final to deny Hendry his 8 world title.

[winphenom]

Mark fully deserves his victory and accolades. Lets all be adults and face it. They are all pros who have breathed and slept snooker all their lives. Surely they must have met with all kinds of players throughout their lives and be matured enough to deal with them. Ronnie had also just badly beaten Mark recently in another final so there is no argument that he cannot overcome Mark's tactics. It was just a case of the better player won.

[looksliketomselleck]

i must have dreamed the century's and 70 plus breaks selby made towards the end. you dont win 18 frames in a world final against the best player who ever lived on "luck". he earned it

[j6uk]

i must have dreamed the century's and 70 plus breaks selby made towards the end. you dont win 18 frames in a world final against the best player who ever lived on "luck". he earned it

i switched off at 15-12 but yeah if that was the case then sure he does but, i won't be searching on youtube to watch the end of the match

[PatBlock]

Now that's how you box a chimp.

Absolutely fantastic final, a pure classic, the immovable object v the irresistible force. We've always known that Mark is granite, but to turn 10 - 5 into 14 - 18 is an astonishing achievement against any opponent but against Ronnie, well what can you say? Well done Mark, what a champion!

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[stavros]

Well statistics... we saw how he made these 50 breaks by torturing his opponent with safety all these hours , Selby made 4 centuries in the whole tournament.On other hand Of course Ronnie didnt played not even near his best but made 13 century breaks ,very close to Hendry's record.

[scottley]

The only statistic that counts is frames won.

[luke-h]

I think there has to be something done about the shot time's, playing snooker at a reasonable pace taking the time that's needed to play the right shot is completely different to deliberately slowing the game down as a tactic to gain an advantage, i wouldn't speed it up to the extent of giving R.O.S or Trump an advantage but i would like to see something to combat these tactics.

[itsnoteasy]

I'm not for making players speed up or change tactically , I don't like it and like some others I won't watch it, but it's part of the game, and Selby used it to his advantage, as a spectacle it was awful, I hated watching Thorburn, Griffiths, Ebdon etc, and I hate the way Selby plays, but he has every right to play like that, it's horrendous to watch but I don't think he really did anything over the top.
On a side note apart from the Robertson-Selby match this has been the worst standard I can remember.

[Giggity1984]

I think some people here have tunnel vision. Selbs tried to play an open game.

I lost count of the amount of times he cracked a long red in only to land on nothing. It happened at the start of breaks and mid break. Selby haters should rewatch the match and count em up, cos he was actually potting quite well.

[alabadi]

slowing the game down as a tactic to gain an advantage

I really don't get this, if your opponent is at the table, it doesn't matter if he's there for 2 minutes or 10, you have no say in what he does, all you can effect is your own play. how can he be getting an advantage.

so if a player is on a break for 10-15 minutes its ok, you are still sitting down and can do nothing about it.

as a player you should be ready to face whatever situation is in front of you, doesn't matter how long you are sat down for