The final of the 2016 Shanghai Masters will be a repeat of last seasons world final as Mark Selby once again takes on Ding Junhui for the £85,000 top prize.
Mark Selby was the first player to secure his place in the final ,but only after completing a trademark Selby comeback to eventually sneak past Stuart Bingham 6-5.
This of course was a battle between the games two most recent world champions and at different times today,they each showed flashes of the form that helped them claim those titles.
First out of the blocks in this one was Selby,who,with the help of breaks of 76 & 65,went to the interval leading 3-1.When they resumed though the game changed completely as Selby's form went walkabout under a barrage of scoring from Bingham.Runs of 67 & 123 drew him level,before further breaks of 72 & 87 gave him four frames in a row and put Bingham on the brink of the final at 5-3.
As we all know by now though,there is noone in the game at the moment more dangerous when he's behind than Selby.Back he came to take a scrappy ninth,before breaks of 63 & 68 drew him level at 5-5 to force the decider.From here there was probably only one winner and the world no.1 got over the line to secure his final place.
His opponent there will be Ding Junhui who shook off the challenge of Stephen Maguire 6-3 to claim his final place.This one didn't quite have the quality of the first semi final as a cagey start saw them go to the interval at 2-2.
A counter attack in the fifth frame saw Maguire take the lead at 3-2,but that was as good as it got for the Scot as Ding took the next four to seal the 6-3 win.
So as I said this is a repeat of last years Crucible decider and I'm sure Ding will be hoping he starts this one a bit better than he did that.Lets hope he does and that both players give this tournament the final it deserves.
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