26.1.07

CHINA IN THEIR HANDS

The scramble for places in the final stages of the China Open comes to a conclusion this afternoon.

Already through is Leicester pro Mark Selby, who edged Mark Davis 5-4 this afternoon.

Selby reached the semi-finals in Shanghai in 2002, beating Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

He also beat the then 14 year-old Ding Jun Hui 5-2 in the wildcard round - the Chinese prodigy's first outing in the major competitive arena.

Selby recalled: "It was the first big match Ding had ever played and he was only 14. He handled himself really well and I said to my friend afterwards that I thought he looked a bit special.

“He’s turned out to be very special. You certainly wouldn’t want to draw him these days."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave,

I know there was an earlier post about Ricky Walden being a future green baize star of the future, Selby should be another.

Since winning the British Open in 2003, he hasn't made much progression, apart from playing fantastic snooker to defeat John Higgins at the World Championship.

It'll be good to see what he can do in the remainder of the season.

Thanks, Joe

Dave H said...

Joe - Mark was runner-up in the 2003 Scottish Open but didn't win the British

I agree he's a top talent, although the 2002 tournament I mentioned saw him go down to the venue 12 hours early for his match with Hendry as he thought 1am in the morning was actaully 1pm in the afternoon!

Anonymous said...

What a great story. There seems to be a few this week at the qualifiers with folk retiring due to bad backs and turning up late.

I was thinking about Selby's past as I wrote the last piece and, sadly did no research on the Leicester potter.

So, it was the Scottish Open that he lost to David Gray in the final and preceeded that by beating Ken Doherty - in which he played good matchplay snooker - in the semi-finals. Is that right?

If so, i've just got the tournaments mixed up.

Thanks, Joe

Dave H said...

That's right, he lost to David Gray at Edinburgh