Selby beats O'Sullivan for his first World Snooker Championship title

Mark Selby has won his first World Snooker Championship title at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. He came from 8-3 and 10-5 behind to beat defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 18-14. 

Big thanks to Monique Limbos for all her photos throughout this year's event. Click here for all the results from the Dafabet World Snooker Championship 2014.

Mark Selby has won his first World Snooker Championship title and becomes only the ninth player to have obtained the 'Triple Crown' of major tournaments after putting in a spirited performance to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan 18-14 at the Crucible.

Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Sheffield's Brendan Moore who was refereeing his first world final.

Defending champion O'Sullivan was looking for a third successive and sixth world title in total and was looking in control early on in the match, racing in to a 10-5 lead.

However Selby composed himself in the final two frames of Sunday's evening session to reduce the deficit to a much more respectful 10-7 at the end of the night.

A 3am fire alarm at Selby's hotel didn't seem to affect his composure when they resumed this afternoon as he quickly reeled off the first four frames before the interval to take the lead for the first time in the match, 11-10.

Although O'Sullivan was battling hard, Selby continued to keep his head in front and extended his lead to 15-12 ahead before the Rocket won the next two frames with top runs of 49 and 37 to close the gap at 15-14.

O'Sullivan had no chances in the next frame as a fantastic 127 total clearance from Selby took him further ahead before a break of 87 in the next followed by a fantastic 35 under pressure in the 32nd frame won him his first world title, 18-14.

Mark Selby punches the air after potting match black to win his first World Snooker Championship title

As well as the Triple Crown, Selby also returns to World No1 in the rankings, ousting Ding Junhui who himself won five ranking titles in a sensational season for him. 

No one expected Selby to do so well over the last few weeks at the Crucible, he hadn't lifted a single full ranking title throughout the 2013/2014 campaign and was knocked out early in the previous two tournaments.

Impressive wins over Ali Carter and Neil Robertson earlier at the Crucible showed everyone that hSelby was bang up for the challenge this year, but nobody could of predicted the scoreline in which he beat O'Sullivan. A very mighty victory indeed.

Selby also holds another interesting record, he's become the first person to be world champion in eight-ball pool (he won the WEPF title in 2007) and in snooker! Can't imagine anyone else achieving that accolade any time soon.

Although the Wuxi Classic qualifiers are a few weeks away, there's still the small matter of the World Snooker Q School that starts this Saturday at the Capital Venue, Gloucester. Eight spots on the main tour up for grabs, check out the draws here.

Mark Selby - World Snooker Champion 2014

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