Well for those who gave me (mild) stick when I said that Mark Selby was actually under pressure because he wanted to prove himself as a worthy n°1 by competing and winning titles, here you have it.
And it doesn't date back two years, only two days, it's his last blog …
http://www.markselby.info/blog.htmlI'M ENJOYING MY SNOOKER AGAIN, SO WATCH OUT!
I haven’t had the best of seasons, there’s no escaping that, and it was really rammed home when Judd Trump took the No.1 world ranking from me. He does know he’s only got it on loan, doesn’t he?!
But I was due a slump. For the past five years I’ve been there or thereabouts in the final stages of tournaments, even winning some (!), and I was near, or at the top, of the rankings. Lots of big players go missing for a while at some stage during their careers, even John Higgins reached only one quarter-final last season.
But I’m not panicking about it. In fact, it could be good for me. Being world No.1 brought its own pressures – I was trying too hard, I felt I had to prove myself all the time, and I was treating every match like it was life or death. When you weigh up all those factors, they’re probably the reasons why I’ve struggled in ranking tournaments this season, and why results haven’t been what they should have.
But with those pressures now lifted, I’ve seen signs during the past few weeks that I’m getting back into shape, and just at the right time, too. I play Michael White in the first round of the UK Championship on Saturday night and, as it’s a tournament I’ve never won, I want to do well and go on to lift the title.
And there’s no reason why I can’t compete in York. That’s one of the key things of the past year or so while I was No.1, I’ve just not been competing. But I’m enjoying my snooker again and, crucially, I feel like I am competing again.
When I was No.1, if I lost a match I would go straight to the practice table and start changing things, putting myself under pressure to find out what was going wrong. What I should have done was just forgot about the defeat and stuck to the things that had got me to No.1 in the first place.
I always used to take work home with me. If I’d lost or not played well, I’d go home and mope about it. But that’s unfair on Vikki. I’m away from home so much because of snooker, it’s not fair to go home and take that with me. Now, if I’ve had a bad day, I leave it at the club.
I feel much more relaxed now, I’m doing the basics and I’m sticking to them, and I’m not putting too much expectation on myself. I was always trying to do everything perfectly, but of course that’s impossible. I’m just enjoying my snooker again.
That’s not to say I don’t want that No.1 status back. I do. I’m not thinking about it for now though, I’d rather be in the top five and competing for titles than be No.1 and not competing at all.
But it does add an extra incentive to regain it. Judd is the man of the moment, and he will be hard to dislodge, but the way the two-year ranking system works means it could be even harder to hang on to. He reached the World Championship final last year, so that will be a lot of points to defend next April. It won’t be easy.
And not many people have regained the No.1 ranking. Steve Davis was saying the same thing the other day, so that’s another incentive. I’m No.2 right now and it would be a fantastic achievement to get it back.
Winning in York next week would be a good place to start. I certainly feel like I can win the title, the pressure is off and it’s a tournament I really enjoy. I will take one game at a time, and all I can do is try my best.
Of course he wasn't going to be open about it on the moment. Most players will want to avoid to give their opponents any sort of edge over them by admitting to what they perceive as a weakness or a level of pressure they struggle to cope with. Mark is a competitive man and he wants to win not just to be consistently good. He was always going to see those critics as something he had to answer, because that's what sports is about: competing and winning.