Mark Anthony Selby

Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983, Leicester, England) is an English professionalsnooker and pool player. Runner up in the World Snooker Championship 2007,^[2] he was the 2006 WEPF World Eight-ball Champion. Selby has won the Masters on two occasions and theWelsh Open, to date his only ranking-tournament success.

In the 2007 World Championships, he beat Stephen Lee 10–7 in the first round, having won 8 successive frames from being 5–0 behind. Selby then defeated former World Champion Peter Ebdon 13–8, with five centuries (including three-in-a-row) to reach the quarter-finals.In the quarter-final, he beat Allister Carter 13–12, from 11–8 up and 11–12 down, in a match that lasted well over nine hours.He went on to reach the final by beating Shaun Murphy 17–16 from 14–16 down, in another deciding frame which he won thanks to a 64 break. Against Higgins in the final, Selby trailed 4–12 after the Sunday sessions, but won all six frames played in the third session on Monday afternoon before the players ran out of time due to the length of the frames. Thus he entered the final session only 10–12 down and closed to within one frame at 13–14, but eventually succumbed 13–18. His performances earned him £110,000 (not far off half of his pre-tournament all-time earnings). It was noted by eventual world champion John Higgins, amongst others, in his victory speech, that Selby was the most improved player on the tour. These performances in the 2006/07 season earned Selby a place in the top 16 for the very first time for the 2007/08 season, where he was ranked 11th.

Selby's wins over Lee, Ebdon, Carter and Murphy at the 2007 World Championships also won him the inaugural 888.com Silver Chip award for outstanding performance, awarded by the Snooker Writers’ Association at the post-championship ball.

He is a fan of Leicester City Football Club, who he has supported since childhood.

In July 2006, he won the WEPF World Eight-ball Championship, beating Darren Appleton 11–7 in the final at Blackpool. He is also known to be a fan of darts, beating Eric Bristow in 2007 and taking on Raymond van Barneveld in exhibition matches.

Selby's nickname on the snooker circuit is "the Jester from Leicester", a name given to him by snooker compere, Richard Beare.

Mark's wife Vikki Layton, who often attends his major matches, is an Irish international pool player.They announced their engagement in August 2010, and were married in Mexico on May 24 2011.