Matthew Selt’s long wait is over. Thirteen years after turning pro, the Englishman won the Indian Open, his maiden world-ranking snooker title defeating China’s 21-year-old Lyu Haotian, who was also playing his maiden ranking final, 5-3 in the title-decider.
After winning the first two frames, World No. 51 Selt watched as Haotian, one of the tournament’s youngest players here, produced a break of 115 to clinch the next frame. But Selt also came up with a century break in the sixth to level the scores at 3-all.
The seventh one was tight and, leading 47-35, Selt missed a red but minutes later, Haotian missed a black to hand back the advantage to the Englishman.
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Earlier, despite a quarterfinal against China’s Lu Ning that went into the wee hours of the morning, Selt kept calm and shocked defending champion John Higgins 4-2 in the semifinal.
“I didn’t even know what time that match got over. I didn’t sleep until 5:20 this morning,” said Selt about the match that slipped into the early hours of Sunday.
“I lay in bed thinking I am going to be playing Higgins. I was just excited, the adrenaline was pumping and I was just so hungry. I called room service at 5 o’clock in the morning, ate a steak sandwich and then got to sleep!”
But despite the excitement within, he was all calm against Higgins, taking the first frame with a century break. “I missed the brown to go 3-1 up and luckily he missed the pink. Even then, 3-1 up, you don’t know if you are going to get a chance in the next frame,” he said.
“I tried to stay as calm as I could and got my chance and I took it. I think I have been calm all week to be honest,” he added.
As the match wore on, Higgins appeared to be under pressure. The former four-time World champion’s best break was a 61 in the fourth frame.
Meanwhile Haotian took a big step in his promising career as he defeated England’s Anthony Hamilton 4-2 to enter his maiden ranking final.
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