The final of the British Open will take place on Sunday when two legends of the game battle it out fittingly for the Clive Everton Trophy over two sessions of play and the best of 19 frames when John Higgins takes on Mark Selby.
Both men have come through the random draw to take their place in the final and with both of them seasoned campaigners when it comes to winning the big events we should get a decent conclusion to a good week of snooker.
John Higgins
This always felt like it was going to be something of a make or break week for John Higgins after he fell out of the top 16 in the world rankings for the first time in what seems like an eternity last week. He was either going to dwell on that and stumble or it was going to inspire him to deliver a bounce back showing. Now that he has made it through to the final it is abundantly clear that he has gone down the route of the latter and he is now just a win away from a first title in more than three years.
You would have to say that with the exception of Shaun Murphy in one of the earlier rounds, the draw has mapped out well for Higgins. He ran into Oliver Lines in his first major semi-final and really that was an ideal draw because Lines couldn’t get going. That means that Higgins will go into this final pretty fresh but there are question marks over just what he has beaten. He can only beat what is in front of him though and he has done that pretty ruthlessly.
Mark Selby
Mark Selby has been something of a marathon man this week but despite having to battle his way through, he has made it back to the final of the British open for a second year in succession. He fell to another member of the ‘Class of 92’ in the title match a year ago when Mark Williams got the better of him so ‘The Jester’ will be out to avoid a repeat of that situation here. A win for Selby in this final will eventually get that monkey off his back that he is yet to win an ITV title.
Selby has had a tougher route through to this final both in terms of the matches he has played and the higher ranked opponents he has beaten. Every round has seen him go to a deciding frame apart from the semi-final where it has to be said he looked to play the best that he has all week. That certainly bodes well for him as if he is getting better with every match then he is entitled to think he is going to be hard to beat in this final.
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Head-to-head
These two are certainly no strangers to each other having met on 22 previous occasions. Mark Selby holds more than an edge on the past battles with a 14-8 lead but he is only ahead 146-136 on the frame count which suggests that a lot of the Selby wins have been close and maybe the Higgins ones not quite so. This will be the fourth time the two have met in a final with Selby having won two of the previous three. They meet in the British Open for the first time here but they have met three times over this 19 frame distance. The record in those is also 2-1 Selby so history is very much on his side.
Betting
I’ve thought all week that Mark Selby was waiting to be put out of his misery but I’m not convinced that John Higgins is the man to do it. If anything, I think Higgins is beginning to fade the longer this week has gone on, which at his age probably isn’t a surprise. There were signs in the semi-final that Selby is going the opposite direction. As the format has increased his level has gone up too and that in particular spells danger for Higgins.
Selby has had the better of the majority of the multi-session matches between these two, especially in recent times, and that is probably no surprise because generally the longer the format the better he plays as his World Championship record suggests. Selby is fairly short to win the match but you can bump the price up to something more acceptable if you take him to cover a 1.5 frame handicap so that only loses the 10-9 from the side of a Selby win. I think if Selby does win he might pull away particularly in the evening so that handicap line is worth attacking.
Tips
Back M.Selby (-1.5 frames) to beat J.Higgins for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Coral
