Mark Selby said it was “extra special” to win the 2025 UK Championship as he takes his career tally of Triple Crown titles to ten.
The 42 year-old from Leicester beat Judd Trump 10-8 in a thrilling final at the Barbican Centre in York on Sunday.
In doing so, Selby becomes only the fourth player in history to reach double digits for Triple Crown titles – comprising victories at the World Championship, UK Championship, and the Masters.
Selby has emulated Ronnie O’Sullivan (23), Stephen Hendry (18), and Steve Davis (15) who have all achieved the feat in the past, with the Jester also now one in front of John Higgins on the all-time list.
It’s the first time in more than four years that Selby has captured one of the major crowns, and his third UK title comes nine years after he last triumphed at the Barbican.
“Since 2016, I’ve been nowhere near – not even getting into the one-table setup,” Selby told Rob Walker for the World Snooker Tour.
“It was nice to get back there and enjoy the atmosphere of the occasion, and to come out on top is just the icing on the cake.”
“I was making it a little bit hard for myself towards the end. In the first session, I felt like I played really well and deserved my lead.
“Looking back at the match, I think 6-2 for the first session would have been a fair scoreline. I know Judd had a chance to go 5-3.
“But I felt like I probably deserved 6-2 the way I played in the first session. In the second session, I started off well.
“I made a good break to go 7-2 and then had a couple of chances in the next couple [of frames] to pull away, but I didn’t take them.
“Judd showed his class out there. He never dropped his head at any stage, even at 7-2. He could have easily just sat in his chair and felt sorry for himself.
“He just showed the champion that he is. He gave it everything, came back, and pushed me all the way. At 9-8, it was game-on again.
“You’re not guaranteed to have a chance in two frames, but thankfully for me I did. I managed to make a good break in the end.
“Just winning tournaments in general gives you confidence. But it seems to be that extra bit special when you win a Triple Crown event compared to any other.
“It feels as though it’s got more of a meaning to it, and in the history of snooker it has. To tick another one off the list and win the UK for the third time is very pleasing.
“If I’d have stayed at nine and never won another one, I would have been happy at the end of my career.
“But I was out there fighting, I gave it everything, and I played some good stuff this week.
“Apart from the game against Barry [Hawkins] where we both struggled and the conditions were tough, I played some good stuff.
“I felt like my game was there and I was confident, I scored most of the time when I got my chances, and I felt like I was clinical for the majority of the tournament.
“In patches in the final I wasn’t towards the end, but when I needed to be, I still held up at the end.”
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
Riyadh Season Snooker Championship – Zhao Xintong
UK Championship – Mark Selby
Selby got off the mark in the final with a break of 71 and followed it up with contributions of 51, 97, and an important clearance of 70 to orchestrate a 4-0 cushion at the mid-session interval.
The scoreline became 5-0 before Trump got on the scoreboard to eventually end the first session 6-2 adrift, with Selby then making it 7-2 upon the evening’s resumption.
From there, however, the world number one launched a sterling comeback by taking five out of the following six frames – including a scrappy 11th frame that involved a controversial ruling on a free ball.
Some misses were creeping into Selby’s game, but the four-time world champion never let Trump restore parity and breaks of 77 and 69 ultimately helped him across the finish line.
“I could have done with him letting me win another frame, to be honest,” defending champion Trump quipped in his immediate post-match interview with Hazel Irvine.
“Look, it wasn’t me playing amazing. Mark let me back in a little bit. He was brilliant at the start, and I think I just dragged him down a little towards the end.”
“It means a lot. I was in a similar position last year, and it’s hard to get over the line in these finals.
“But I think Mark was the best player all week. He played very, very well, and he thoroughly deserved his win.
“It’s been a good week, [with] a great crowd for the whole tournament. It’s a brilliant tournament, and I look forward to coming back next year.”
The result represented the second time in as many months that Selby got one over on Trump in a big final, having also beaten the game’s top-ranked player to win the Champion of Champions in November.
Selby becomes the first player this season to win more than one title, and it’s his fourth in total across the calendar year of 2025.
Featured photo credit: WST
Selby’s 25th ranking title was captured in a thrilling final of two halves for Selby. The first session was largely peak Selby, an extension of his fabulous performance the previous night against Shaun Murphy. The second session witnessed a massive drop off from the Jester. He was also hard done by over the free ball incident in frame 11.
Trump draws a calendar year blank for the first time since 2013. He’s operated at around 80% of his capacity in York.
You could argue Joe Davis is ahead of him on 15 Triple Crown titles. It wasn’t the ‘modern era’ but they still count.
A good rather than great Championship. The standard improved as the tournament progressed, and Selby was undeniably the event’s standout player.
The controversy over the free ball made snooker looked amateurish. I can’t think of too many other sports where you’d have the protagonists making the decision between them and effectively overruling Olivier Marteel. I’ve seen this happen too much in recent years. John Williams would’ve not been so easily led.
In the semifinal versus Trump, Neil Robertson never seemed to find form or confidence — when Robertson is playing well and is confident, there is a swagger in the way he moves around the table — you never say that in the semifinal against Trump.
It was similar with Trump in the final — when’s he’s playing well and has confidence, you can see it in his expression, and the way he moves around the table — but against Selby, Trump never really found his form, and never really looked confident.
On the other hand, while there were a few mistakes, and a few anxious moments after those mistakes, to his credit Selby looked like a winner from the start — and he hit some amazing shots, especially shots where he positioned the cue ball or used the cue ball to move an object ball out of a safe position — some of the best I’ve ever seen — a deserving winner.
Excellent stuff and a worthy final and a worthy winner: Mark Selby played the best overall snooker for the whole week. Judd Trump looks like he’s clawing his way back to the sharpest sharp end of the game again atm though!