2017 World Snooker Championship (Day 16 - The Final) - Higgins leads Selby after two sessions

01:23:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments


The mighty and much-craved for final of the 2017 Betfred World Snooker Championship has exhausted its first two sessions, John Higgins holding an overnight advantage of 10-7 over Mark Selby.

The pair got together in a re-enactment of the World Snooker Championship final from 10 years ago, when Higgins was the winner, this definitely adding a bit more pressure on both players, as it was easily seen at the beginning of the match.

Selby was the one to take the first frame of the final with a great 76 break, while Higgins was drawing level after winning a scrapper.

Runs of 62 and 58 were helping "The Jester" put his nose back in front, Higgins responding with a perfectly cued 141 to make the scoreboard go 2-2 at the mid-session interval.

It was a nervy start from both players, but as the match re-started "The Wizard of Wishaw" got a bit more settled in and used runs of 63 and 33 to take the lead for the first time since the start of the match, to which he carefully added a 95 clearance, a 7th frame won on the black and a 49 to end the first session at 6-2 up.

When returning into the arena for their second snooker encounter, Selby seemed determined to produce one of his well-known comebacks as he crafted a break of 86 to pull one back. But that wasn't in Higgins' plan, who took the next two frames to open a five-frame lead.

Luckily, the current world champion managed to produce runs of 26 and 38 just as the mid-session interval was starting, thus trailing 8-4.

A vintage Higgins, whose long potting was just superb, was furiously taking no less than two consecutive frames thanks to a top break of 76 to go 10-4 up, when Selby's determination decided to make a full appearance.

The world number one hit in breaks of 81, 121, 47 and 49 to reduce the gap at just three frames, 10-7 and get into a much better position than the one he was into when the second session started.

Monday will see the conclusion of this match, the lads meeting for their third session from 2pm (UK time) and for the forth and last, from 7pm (UK time).

And since vintage-Higgins is on the cards and comeback-Selby has finally decided to show up, then we have a cracking final on our hands!

Photos credit: World Snooker

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