British Open 2023 snooker final preview
Less than two weeks on from the Shanghai masters final, which saw Ronnie O’Sullivan narrowly edge Luca Brecel in a scintillating battle, the World Snooker Tour (WST) has made a swift turnaround to bring its highest-ranked players to Cheltenham for the British Open.
Adopting a different format to Shanghai, where a lucrative £210,000 prize was on the line, the British Open is a ranking event offering a slightly less impressive sum of £100,000 to its champion.
This provides an opportunity for new faces to emerge on the circuit, with O’Sullivan’s absence for medical reasons giving players a chance to steal some of the spotlight that, for the longest time, has shone solely on one man.
Additionally, ITV’s coverage of the tournament has surely brought more eyeballs to the sport; even if competing with the rugby World Cup means less viewing figures, snooker can only benefit by returning to terrestrial television.
At the initial stages of the tournament, 21 year old Si Jiahui looked likely to build on his success following the World Championship earlier this year, as an impressive 4-1 win over former world champion Neil Robertson would have certainly turned a few heads.
However, when the exciting prospect came up against a more experienced, and prolific, Mark Selby, the Jester proved that a decisive 110 break in the final frame was no laughing matter.
Then, at one stage, it looked like another young contender, Jack Lisowski, would be on his way to the final. But despite an astonishing seventh frame against Shawn Murphey, where he clawed back a 62 point deficit to finish with 63, Lisowski was halted in front of his home supporters upon reaching the quarterfinals. Once again, this defeat was handed out by Selby.
While the match saw some incredible long potting from Lisowski, who even scored a treble in the third frame, it was Selby who methodically built his breaks, claiming a total of three centuries to come away with a 5-4 victory. The Jester then put the nail in the coffin against Xiao Guodong in the semifinals, unrelentingly dismantling his opponent to conclude the match with a 6-0 whitewash.
Joining Selby in the final is Mark Williams who, now having reached 40 ranking finals, seems to be enjoying a purple patch in what most people would perceive to be the tail end of his illustrious career.
The pair last came face-to-face at the 2021 World Championship quarter final, where Selby achieved a dominant 13-3 victory. However, like Selby, Williams has taken his fair share of scalps enroute to the final, beating Hossein Vafaei, Ding Junhui and Fan Zhengyi – with a 138 break against the latter.
It goes without saying that Selby has looked more than impressive in the leadup to this final. But while his performance against Xiao was one-sided, he did reveal some flaws to his game against Lisowski, missing the occasional easy red, albeit, after a period in time where he looked unstoppable at nearly every major event staged by the WST.
Moreover, recent defeats at finals to O’Sullivan, Barry Hawkins and Brecel have put his air of invincibility into question.
While having demonstrated tremendous resilience to claw back frames, significantly in some of his more recent matches, Selby is now coming up against an equally stoic operator who is not easily deterred when things don’t go to plan.
Williams, with his incredible long potting ability, will offer a different challenge that might just allow him capitalise on some of Selby’s rare, but potentially disastrous, mistakes.
