Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Selby will renew rivalries in the final of the Scottish Open on Sunday. Get their form, head-to-head stats and recent meetings - plus our verdict.
Key info
- Best-of-17 frames final
- Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes
- Session times: 1300 & 1900 GMT
- Television coverage via Eurosport
Head-to-head
- Matches played: 30
- Selby wins: 10
- O'Sullivan wins: 19
- Draws: 1
- Frames won by Selby: 149
- Frames won by O'Sullivan: 185
- Finals won by Selby: 5
- Finals won by O'Sullivan: 3
Recent meetings
2020 World Championship semi-final
O'Sullivan 17-16 Selby
- Centuries: 2-0
- High break: 138-97
2020 Welsh Open quarter-final
O'Sullivan 5-1 Selby
- Centuries: 3-0
- High break: 142-<50
2019 Scottish Open semi-final
Selby 5-4 O'Sullivan
- Centuries: 1-3
- High break: 120-123
2020-21 form
Mark Selby
- European Masters: W
- English Open: SF
- Champion of Champions: SF
- Northern Ireland Open: R2
- UK Championship: QF
Ronnie O'Sullivan
- European Masters: R2
- English Open: R3
- Champion of Champions: QF
- Northern Ireland Open: F
- UK Championship: R2
Sporting Life verdict
In this year of all years, too much of anything which is good is probably not a reasonable complaint. Still, snooker is testing the theory by running tournaments into each other and it can be a little much at times. Perhaps it explains why everyone has been in-and-out, with our Scottish Open finalists both demonstrating that nicely. Mark Selby began the season with a bang, winning the European Masters, but flopped in the Northern Ireland Open. Ronnie O'Sullivan has made two finals now, but on four other occasions he's been disappointing.
That's the negative spin. The positive one is that one week after Judd Trump and Neil Robertson produced a classic, now we get Selby versus O'Sullivan, a rivalry which has endured ever since the Leicester man emerged as the most potent threat to Ronnie's pursuit of records. These are the four best players in the sport, and as we so often say, where O'Sullivan is concerned who knows just how many more of these monster finals we will be treated to?
In fairness, O'Sullivan says he's enjoying practice more than matches and that ought to translate to plenty more finals, this one being his 55th at ranking level. Selby meanwhile has looked much more familiar this year and the way he has bounced back from his semi-final heartbreak at the Crucible in August has been so impressive.
This has a lot to live up to, given that O'Sullivan's 17-16 victory came on one of the most sensational days in the history of the sport. It offers Selby a chance for a measure of revenge, and while O'Sullivan insisted on Saturday that he really doesn't mind whether he wins or loses, that's not quite true. No doubt he'll lose no sleep should Selby win, but Ronnie is fiercely competitive and always gets up for this one.
What's the best bet for Selby v O'Sullivan?
There's no doubt that O'Sullivan was let off the hook by Li Hang on Saturday afternoon, and that he had some fortune, too. Li was 4-1 up and on his way to 5-1 when his attempt to release the required reds failed, and that one shot turned the match on its head. O'Sullivan still had plenty to do when his chance arrived but it would not have granted a bit of luck on the part of the Chinese, who thereafter lost his cool and made life easier for the world champion.
O'Sullivan had earlier won deciders against Tian Pengfei and Ding Junhui, and was 2-0 down in the first round against Allan Taylor, so there have been vulnerabilities present. That's been true all season, in fact, and he's certainly not been at his free-scoring best - a factor which is worth taking into account when considering a centuries bet. O'Sullivan typically dominates the count - Selby didn't manage a single century in their 33-frame World Championship semi-final - but it's Selby who has been the more heavy-scoring this week.
Selby dazzled against Jamie Jones in his semi-final, and has been behind for a total of two frames in the tournament. Ricky Walden played brilliantly in taking him the distance in the quarter-finals, but nobody else has laid a glove on the defending champion and with that extra determination following what happened in Sheffield, he looks the bet here for all that the market to some extent reflects his play so far.
It's telling, surely, that O'Sullivan leads all the head-to-head stats you'll find bar one: their meetings in finals. With a trophy on the line, Selby leads 5-3 and two of O'Sullivan's wins came in the Masters, very much his turf in London. The other was in the now-defunct Premier League, and elsewhere it's been Selby all the way.
There's always some trepidation in taking on the greatest player this sport has ever produced, but it makes sense to do so here whether you take Selby to win, even speculate at a bigger price by taking him to win by three or more on the handicap. He looks in better nick and nobody has been better at dealing with the unique threat posed by O'Sullivan.
