World Snooker Championship final: Mark Selby wins fourth world title

Mark Selby claimed his fourth World Championship title with an 18-15 victory over Shaun Murphy at a sold-out Crucible Theatre.

Selby, who led 14-11 prior to the final session, is now three Crucible crowns off Stephen Hendry’s record of seven.

Runs of 66, 68 and a superb 120 helped him break Murphy’s resistance in a high-quality encounter.

Selby, 37, collects £500,000 in prize money and moves up to second in the world behind Judd Trump.

Having been perched at the top of the world rankings during the period in which he claimed three world titles in four years, Selby’s dominance once looked unquestionable.

And while those days appeared to have gone, his return to form under Chris Henry, who also coaches Murphy, and the quality of his all-round game suggests he is more than capable of continuing to win snooker’s biggest prizes.

Now level with Scotland’s John Higgins on four, only Hendry (seven), Ronnie O’Sullivan, Steve Davis and Ray Reardon (all six) have won more world titles than Selby in the modern era.

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