World Snooker Championship LIVE: Score and result as Luca Brecel holds off Mark Selby to win maiden title
Four-time world champion Mark Selby couldn’t stop mercurial Belgian Luca Brecel from winning the World Championship final at the Crucible
Luca Brecel beat Mark Selby to become the first ever snooker world champion from mainland Europe.
The ‘Belgian Bullet’ resisted a sensational comeback effort by Selby to win his maiden title aged 28. He got the first chance in the last frame after a mistake by Selby and he duly posted his fifth century of the match, a brilliant 112, to seal an 18-15 victory.
“It was so tough,” said Brecel. “He’s the worst opponent to have in a final! He keeps coming back, he’s such a fighter. I don’t know how I did it.”
Relive all the action from the Crucible Theatre in our live blog, below:
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 2-6 Brecel
So smooth and composed by Brecel, who manoeuvres the white around the table with apparent ease to take the frame as Selby watches on. Brecel will take a four-frame lead into tonight’s second session.
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 2-5 Brecel
Selby gets the first few points on the board before missing a tricky red, and now Brecel is at the table. He pots red and black, then goes up the table to baulk to sweep up a couple of reds which ran loose. A good start, and this is a real chance.
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 2-5 Brecel
Selby has to fight for just about every ball of his 62-point break, but then misses a relatively straightforward black to let Brecel back to the table needing a couple of snookers. Brecel seems frustrated, and he quickly gives up. That’s Selby’s frame, and there will be one more to wrap up this session.
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 1-5 Brecel
Mark Selby gets a first look in this seventh frame, but he’s having to work hard with the pink down by the black spot making things awkward.
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 1-5 Brecel
After a long, draining safety battle, Selby leaves the thinnest of snicks and Brecel takes it to pot the blue and clinch the frame. What a start to his first final by the Belgian, who is playing a thrilling brand of attacking snooker and holding his own in the safety exchanges too.
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 1-4 Brecel
Selby comes unstuck trying to get from brown to blue and – with the scores at Selby 49-66 Brecel – a safety battle ensues on the blue. Every frame is crucial, of course, but this feels like a particularly significant moment in this opening session...
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 1-4 Brecel
Brecel can’t quite finish the job, though, and he lets Selby back to the table. The four-time champion puts away the last couple of reds and begins sweeping up the colours – he needs them all, and the pink is currently safe on the side cushion.
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 1-4 Brecel
Selby then loses position after screwing off the black into the wrong red, and leaving himself a very tricky cut to the middle pocket which hits the near jaw. Brecel comes back to the table trailing by three points, 30-27. He buries a beautiful red to get started.
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 1-4 Brecel
And yet, Brecel slightly loses control of the cue ball and misses a red using the rest – after his rest skills were given a big intro by John Virgo on commentary – and Mark Selby comes to the table with the balls well spread.
World Snooker Championship final: Selby 1-4 Brecel
Wow, what a couple of shots these are. Luca Brecel first pots a red with a clever double across the middle of the table, then slams home the brown and top-spins the cue ball off one cushion into the pack to get himself on a red. The brown was absolutely cracked into the middle, a phenomenal pot.
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