Snooker: Top-ranked Selby clinches UK title

NEW YORK: World number one Mark Selby defeated close friend and fellow Englishman Shaun Murphy 10-6 to win the UK Championship title. The players had been locked at 4-4 at the end of the afternoon session in the best-of-19 final, before world number one Selby edged into a 6-5 lead in the evening. Murphy won the next frame, but Selby swept the following four to claim the biggest title of his career. “It means a great deal to me,” said Selby. “It makes it even more special to beat someone of Shaun’s class. It was a strange game, it was not pretty at all. I was twitching all over the place.” Sunday’s final was the first all-English affair since 1992.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2012.