He lost out to John Higgins in 2007 but beat Ronnie O’Sullivan to swipe the trophy in 2014, and after squashing the prospect of an all-Asian final it will be Selby standing in the way of record-breaker Ding.
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“They will be going insane back home for this”, Ding said before the final.
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But on Sunday the 29-year-old just failed to get started. I was second favourite, but here I am sitting here as world champion.
And as Selby produced by far his best snooker of the tournament, Ding looked like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights. But the opening session was shared 4-4. Even then, Ding had a chance to make it 1-1, but an ill-advised cut on the green gifted Selby the second frame.
At 3-0 down, Ding was kicking himself as he could have been leading 2-1. Selby won the scrappy next frame before taking the title with a break of 74.
The winning line was in site after Selby potted a hard black to steal the 27th frame and go 16-11 up, but a Ding recovery, which included his 15th ton, placed any celebrations on hold.
He has won 83 frames over the past three weeks to reach this point, and needs to hit 101 to be crowned world champion tonight.
“I definitely didn’t feel match-sharp coming into the tournament”. Ding knocked it in and finally had a frame on the board. In a match that was contested in sharp contrast to the impressive break-building on show in the other semifinal, Fu and Selby struggled to get their games going.
Fu was accused during the 2012 World Championship by Mark Allen of having cheated in the past, which the Hong Kong player emphatically denied. It appeared that Ding would level with the second frame, but Selby, requiring snookers, snatched it to move into a 2-0 lead.
But it took a gutsy fightback in the last two frames of the session against Selby to avoid a whitewash that could have effectively ended Ding’s title bid nearly before it began.
The Chinese star followed it up with a century, his 13th of the tournament, and a break of 89 to reduce the deficit to 7-5.
Long though it was, Sunday’s frame was still short of the world record of one hour, 40 minutes and 24 seconds set by Scotland’s Alan McManus and England’s Bary Pinches at October’s Ruhr Open in Germany.
A 66-minute 15th frame went Ding’s way, but Selby made him nearly kneel down and beg for it, playing on for snookers for an age.
He said: “Apart from the last session of my semi-final against Marco (Fu) it’s been average or lower than average”.
“To be Premier League champions is a fantastic achievement and I want to say well done to Claudio [Ranieri, Leicester manager] and the boys”, said the 32-year-old, who pocketed a record prize of £330,000.
He added: “I played well in the last session and I played like I was enjoying it more”. I just wanted to enjoy the day.
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“It’s probably a little bit of a surprise that it’s taken so long for him to get to a world final”.
