Mark Selby salutes snooker icon and Triple Crown originator after epic UK Championship victory - 'I've looked up to him for years'
Updated 08/12/2025 at 11:19 GMT
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There are four self-styled major tournaments in snooker, with the Saudi Arabia Masters recently joining the World Championship, UK Championship and Masters, the sport's 'Triple Crown', in earning elevated status. While the World Championship remains historically the most important tournament by some distance, the UK, the second-biggest ranking event, has been won by Mark Selby for a third time.
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Mark Selby has paid tribute to fellow four-time world champion John Higgins following his UK Championship success, saying it is "incredible" to move ahead of his Triple Crown win total.
Selby wrapped up his third UK Championship with an epic 10-8 win over world No. 1 Judd Trump on Sunday night to move one ahead of Higgins with 10 career victories at the World Championship, Masters and UK.
It was also the second time in successive months Selby had overcome Trump following his victory at the Champion of Champions in Leicester.
While the nature of his 10-5 win over Trump in his home city was largely one-sided, his triumph at a packed York Barbican was a far tighter affair as his opponent recovered from trailing 5-0 and 7-2 to fight back to 9-8 behind, before Selby produced a clinical match-clinching 69 to add to his UK victories in 2012 and 2016.
"To win any tournament nowadays is so difficult. I put so much emphasis on these Triple Crown events," Selby told reporters.
"I always try that little bit harder and the pressure is greater. These are the events I judge my CV on. It is nice to get to double figures.
"It is incredible to go above John Higgins in Triple Crown wins. I’ve looked up to him for years. When I was a young lad, he was at the top of his game and he is still top of his game now, to know I’m in front of him by one is incredible.
"He is still capable of winning Triple Crown events himself and it wouldn’t surprise me if he did it this season.
"I get on with him really well, so I can have a bit of banter about that."
Broadcast to millions as televised coverage of the game reached saturation point in the 1980s, the World Championship, UK Championship and Masters were not known as the 'Triple Crown' in their formative years on TV.
Indeed, the UK Championship, like the Masters, was a non-ranking event until 1984 when Steve Davis claimed the third of his six victories at the tournament with a 16-8 win over fierce rival Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins in Preston.
It was another Higgins who is perhaps responsible for first creating the familiar phrase 'Triple Crown' in relation to the World Championship, UK Championship and Masters back in 1999, the same year Selby turned professional.
After securing his maiden world title with an 18-12 victory over Ken Doherty, and his first UK title, defeating Matthew Stevens 10-6 in 1998, John Higgins held all three when he lifted the Masters with a 10-8 win over Doherty at the old Wembley Conference Centre in February 1999.
In doing so, the Wishaw professional became only the third player in history behind Davis and Hendry to hold all the three at the same time.
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"That triple crown would be a dream, but it's going to be tough," said Higgins during his run to the first of two wins at the Masters that also saw him defeat Alain Robidoux (6-1), Mark King (6-1) and Anthony Hamilton (6-3).
Perhaps it is a coincidence, but at the same time, Scotland were trying to complete their own Triple Crown in rugby union by battling their way to a shock victory at the Six Nations, then the Five Nations, the last time the country won the ancient tournament.
When Mark Williams won the LG Cup in 2003 with a 9-5 win over Higgins, or the old Rothmans Grand Prix as it had been known, he was then considered to have completed the 'Grand Slam' in carrying off the four key titles broadcast on terrestrial TV before it was again rebranded and relocated to China as the World Open in 2012.
The Welshman is the last player to achieve the feat of winning all three trophies in a single season in 2002/03, emulating Davis (1987/88) and Hendry, who remains the only player in history to do it twice in 1989/90 and 1995/96.
But with the snooker 'Grand Slam' no longer a thing on UK TV screens, the concept of the 'Triple Crown' again gained traction in 2015 after Shaun Murphy drubbed Neil Robertson 10-2 in the Masters final to become only the 10th player to achieve the treble across their respective careers.
"I just could not produce the sort of snooker that got me to the final," said Robertson. "I'd just like to say welcome to the Triple Crown club.
"He is a worthy champion."
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Trump became the 11th and latest player to join the exclusive club, which also includes the late, great Terry Griffiths, with an 18-9 win over John Higgins in the 2019 world final.
With the lucrative Saudi Arabia Masters now being bestowed a similar billing in the sport alongside the 'Triple Crown' events, Robertson rated his 10-9 triumph over Ronnie O'Sullivan in Jeddah in August, worth £500,000, as greater than his success in lifting the world title in 2010.
"I think it probably surpasses the World Championship in my opinion, because I have had to answer a lot of questions. Can I beat someone like Ronnie in a final of this magnitude?" he told TNT Sports.
"We have played in many finals before, and I have won a few, he has probably won more than me, but to beat him here with so much on the line is definitely my best win."
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Whether or not the modern metric of the game places more stock on UK and Masters over other key ranking tournaments in the sport remains a matter of personal opinion.
And it also tends to come down to what matters most personally to players on any given week on the professional circuit.
For example, Higgins, who lost 6-5 to Murphy in the last 16 in York, felt his 10-8 win in the Tour Championship final win over Mark Selby in Manchester in April from 8-5 behind was his career highlight.
"It's my best-ever win, definitely," he said. "Never mind world titles, UK...
"The way Mark was playing to go 8-5, my head was spinning. I don't know how I came back to be brutally honest.
"It is my best-ever win, he is an unbelievable champion. My best ever-win, aye."
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Yet the Scot is the player responsible for placing added significance in achieving success in the World Championship, which remains the sport's biggest event by some distance, the UK Championship and Masters.
Doherty has said the World Championship should be regarded above anything else.
"This is what we all play for, we grew up watching this tournament above the rest. It’s the pinnacle," said the 1997 world champion.
"In golf, you get four goes at it in the Majors, but that’s what makes this harder to win because it only passes this way once a year.
"For these guys, it would be a cherry on the cake."
Trump will end the calendar year without winning a trophy for the first time since 2013, but looked far more content with the state of his game after reverting to the old cue that delivered him the world title in 2019.
Selby produced a century and nine breaks over 50, with Trump responding with two tons and five 50+ knocks in a high-quality joust.
The 30-time ranking event winner is set to return to action at the 52nd Masters at Alexandra Palace in London next month, the sport's most prestigious invitational tournament, which sees him take on 2011 winner Ding Junhui in his tournament opener.
Meanwhile, Selby, who has moved up from 11th to sixth in the world rankings, will aim to end his year on a high when he takes on Robbie McGuigan in his opener at the Scottish Open in Edinburgh on Tuesday, December 16, live on TNT Sports and discovery+.
Top 10 Triple Crown winners
- Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) - 23
- Stephen Hendry (Sco) - 18
- Steve Davis (Eng) - 15
- Mark Selby (Eng) - 10
- John Higgins (Sco) - 9
- Mark Williams (Wal) - 7
- Neil Robertson (Aus) - 6
- Alex Higgins (NI) - 5
- Judd Trump (Eng) - 5
- Shaun Murphy (Eng) - 4
- - -
Watch and stream the 2025/26 snooker season, including the Snooker Shoot Out and Scottish Open, live on TNT Sports and discovery+
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