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World of Sport

01st May 2017

Mark Selby produced an escape to die for in the Snooker World Championship final

One of the best shots of the year

Robert Redmond

This is one of the best shots of the 2017 Snooker World Championship.

We’ve already seen some brilliant shots at this year’s tournament in Sheffield.

Mark Selby, the defending world champion, pulled off a very impressive double in his quarter-final tie with Marco Fu last week.

And Shaun Murphy may have lost to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last-16 of the tournament, but his wonderful shot in their game was easily one of the best played at the Crucible this year.

Murphy played the cue ball off three cushions, came back up the table and pot a red, which was orignally snookered on, in the middle pocket.

On Sunday, in the first session of the two day final against John Higgins, Selby played a brilliant escape shot of his own.

The world champion was snookered behind the brown ball, with one red left on the table and 37 points behind his opponent.

With no easy escape available, Selby played a swerve shot around the brown, past the yellow, and off a cushion, potting the red and setting himself up for a shot on the black.

A pretty special shot.

Sunday’s action ended with Higgins leading by 10 frames to seven, but Selby turned that into a 13-11 lead on Monday.

The first to 18 frames wins the world title. Selby is going for his third world championship and Higgins for his fifth.