Mark Selby produced a brilliant display to win a maiden Champion of Champions title on Sunday, beating Judd Trump 10-5 in the final.
The Leicester man enjoyed home advantage at the Mattioli Arena and it paid off, with Selby delighting the crowd with a high-scoring performance.
Every frame in the final except one boasted a break of 60 or above with the pair combining to compile half a dozen century breaks.
At first, it appeared as though Trump was going to have the upper hand with the world number one countering his opponent’s run of 102 with his own contributions of 114, 111, and 73 to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.
But Selby, who lost to Trump in their only previous final against one another way back at the 2011 China Open, reeled off four frames on the spin to seize the initiaive.
Trump took what seemed an important last frame of the opening session to pull back to within one and then restored parity at the outset of the evening’s play.
The Ace in the Pack was in a constant battle with his efforts to adapt to the new cue that he adopted at the beginning of the campaign, however.
Selby won the scrappiest frame of the match to take a 6-5 lead and moved two in front again by pinching a close 12th frame on the colours.
The Jester never looked back thereafter, completing the triumph in style with a hat-trick of tons taking him to the winning post.
“I felt like I played good from start to finish,” Mark Selby, who was rewarded with the £150,000 top prize, said in the ITV studio.
“I can’t remember missing too many easy balls. I think I missed a black in the third frame going into the pack.”
“Other than that, I don’t really feel like I missed much. Every time I got a chance, I felt like I was going to score and capitalise.
“More times than not, I did. But it’s a lot easier when you know what your task has got to be.
“Going into that match, I know I need to play well. If I don’t, I’m not going to win, so you get on with it and give it your best shot.
“I put Judd up there with Ronnie, he’s so good to watch when he is at the top of his game. He has been dominating for the last few years.
“He has been number one for a long while now. They are the kind of finals that you want to play in – you want to pit your wits against the top boys when they are at the top of their game. That’s what I did.”
Selby had played well to reach the final, beating Stephen Maguire, defending champion Mark Williams, and Neil Robertson en route.
Yet he definitely saved his best display for last, underlined by a terrific pot-success rate of 95% in the final and a perfect 35/35 record with the rest throughout the week’s action.
“Shaun who?” Selby quipped, referencing Murphy who is usually regarded as one of the best rest players in the game. “Yeah, that’s surprising.”
“Because I don’t see myself as one of those players who is that good with the rest. I’m not 100% confident with it the majority of the time. But obviously I was doing something right this week.”
“I hope [this leads to more success]. I was saying to my friend Ian who runs the club when I was 3-1 down at the interval that, whatever happens today, I feel like I’ve found something.
“If I win, great. If I lose, I felt like something was coming. Whether it was this week, next week, or the week after.
“I know that what I’m doing now is what I need to stick to, because I’ve always been a tinkerer over the years. But I feel confident in what I’m doing now.
“My target has always been the Triple Crown events. You know, during the season, if you could pinch one of them – I know it’s not easy.
“But that’s where I see myself when I look back in years to come. The all-time greats will look at the Triple Crown events. Basically like the Grand Slams in tennis.
“Our Triple Crown is the Worlds, the Masters, and the UK. I always try to set my stall out to try and win one of them in a season.
“The last few seasons I’ve been nowhere near, but hopefully this year will be a bit better.”
Champions in the 2025/26 season so far:
Championship League Snooker – Stephen Maguire
Shanghai Masters – Kyren Wilson
Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters – Neil Robertson
Wuhan Open – Xiao Guodong
English Open – Mark Allen
British Open – Shaun Murphy
Xi’an Grand Prix – Mark Williams
Northern Ireland Open – Jack Lisowski
International Championship – Wu Yize
Champion of Champions – Mark Selby
For Trump, it was a case of a second runner-up prize in as many months following his defeat to Jack Lisowski in the final of the recent Northern Ireland Open.
The 36 year-old’s wait for a first piece of silverware of the calendar year goes on, and he wasn’t in any particular mood to see the bright side of his recent runs.
“Not really, no,” Trump said when it was put to him in his post-match interview inside the arena that there were positives to take from the week.
“There are no positives. [But] firstly, congratulations to Mark. I think he was the best player all week, and he thoroughly deserved to win this trophy.”
“There are no excuses. He was the better player throughout the tournament, and he thoroughly deserved to win. It’s nice for him to win here in Leicester.
“I couldn’t win, to be honest. There’s no way I could win with that cue. I’m not going to make excuses – I chose to use that cue and gave it my absolute all.
“I just can’t get used to it. Tonight, I really struggled on the table and didn’t know where to aim at all.
“Mark played really, really well. Mark put me under pressure, he scored extremely heavy in the last couple of frames. His long potting was good and his safety was good.
“It showed why he’s one of the greats of the game.”
2025 Champion of Champions
Monday
Group 2
Shaun Murphy 1-4 Lei Peifan
Judd Trump 4-1 Bai Yulu
Group Final
Lei Peifan 2-6 Judd Trump
Tuesday
Group 3
Kyren Wilson 4-3 Jack Lisowski
Mark Allen 0-4 Zhao Xintong
Group Final
Kyren Wilson 5-6 Zhao Xintong
Wednesday
Group 1
Mark Williams 4-0 Alfie Burden
Mark Selby 4-0 Stephen Maguire
Group Final
Mark Williams 5-6 Mark Selby
Thursday
Group 4
Neil Robertson 4-1 Tom Ford
John Higgins 4-3 Xiao Guodong
Group Final
Neil Robertson 6-4 John Higgins
Friday
Semi-Final
Judd Trump 6-2 Zhao Xintong
Saturday
Semi-Final
Mark Selby 6-2 Neil Robertson
Sunday
Final
Judd Trump 5-10 Mark Selby
Featured mage credit: Matchroom Pool
I’m glad Trump shut down all this nonsense often spouted by interviewers about taking the positives in the immediate aftermath of a final loss. It’s even more preposterous when you’re talking about a serial winner like Trump who only deals ij winning tournaments.
I like Rob Walker but his questioning can be clunky. His leading question to Selby about this must rank close to the summit of his achievements is misplaced when you consider Selby, who buys into the Triple Crown concept, has won nine of them including four World Championships.
The juddernaught sounds like he is the jabbernaught on the table at the moment. Well done Mark Selby on a Champion of Champions win. Back to back new winners for the tournament. A different winner every week this season. What a contrast to the ‘Trump Vs Wilson’ campaigns of the previous couple of years.
Where was Vicky?
She was there with their daughter. They had photos with Mark at the trophy presentation.
thanks.
A wonderful all-round performance from Selby. He bested Trump in the tactical department, further exposing issues in Trump’s long game. It left the world number one scratching around for scoring opportunities. Has a player ever finished a tournament victory with three consecutive centuries? I do know Stephen Hendry made three in the last five frames in finishing off Jimmy White in the 1992 World Championship final.
This was Selby’s 41st career title. He’s only the second player, after Kyren Wilson, to win three titles in 2025. I make this his most prestigious victory since he captured his fourth world title in 2021.
What an amazing recap! Selby really showed why he’s still one of the toughest competitors in the sport. That 95% pot-success rate and the three tons to finish things off were just incredible to watch. Trump fought hard, but you could see Selby had that extra spark all evening.
I was also reading another take on the event here — it gives a nice quick breakdown of the final: https://www.bbc.com/sport/snooker