Selby beats O'Sullivan to win UK Championship

Mark Selby celebrates with his families after beating Ronnie O' Sullivan in the final to win the snooker UK Championship trophy at the York Barbican, UK on Dec 5, 2016. This is the world number one's second UK Championship title. [Photo/Xinhua]

LONDON -- World number one Mark Selby won his second UK Championship title after beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-7 in a thrilling final in York's Barbican Center on Sunday.

The 33-year-old becomes only the sixth player to win the World and UK Championship tournaments during the same calendar year and pocketed the top prize of 170,000 pounds.

O'Sullivan, bidding to win his sixth UK title, trailed 2-6 following the opening session and lost one more frame in the evening session to go behind 2-7. But he managed to make it 7-8 after two brilliant breaks of 134 and 130.

Leicester's Selby finally close out the match with back-to-back century breaks of 134 and 107 to secure the title.

Selby said after the match, "It feels amazing. Just to win the UK is a great feeling anyway, but as I said when I won the world for the first time, if I was to go on and win a big tournament I'd like to play Ronnie in the final and to go on and win.

A disappointed O'Sullivan said, "Mark has done well to win so congratulations to him. I was pleased with my attitude. I was pleased that when I came to the table I just played the shot and didn't get bogged down looking around too much, which can happen when you are playing long frames.

"I enjoyed my game, but I just missed too many easy balls to win tournaments, that's probably why I haven't won anything this season. "