Snooker Shoot Out 2021 - Ryan Day ends spell in the wilderness with win over Mark Selby in final

ByAlex Livie

Updated 07/02/2021 at 23:40 GMT

Mark Allen's 142 clearance, the highest break in the history of the event, was one of the highlights of the Snooker Shoot Out. The tournament at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes also featured a raft of flukes that lit up an event that was played without fans, but the biggest moment was Ryan Day beating Mark Selby to lift the trophy.

The wait for a world champion to win the Snooker Shoot Out continues, as Mark Selby was beaten 67-24 by Ryan Day in the final.

Day came into the event ranked 50th in the world after a torrid spell, but he looked good all week and impressively took his chance to beat Selby with a break of 67.

The two formats are at opposite ends of the snooker spectrum, with the World Championship final played over the best of 35 frames, and the Shoot Out a one-frame battle.

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The Shoot Out format may not be to Selby’s taste, but his table craft is as good as anybody to ever play the game and that was on show at the Marshall Arena.

His modus operandi was to get ahead and protect a lead. He did it all the way to the final, and attempted to repeat the trick after opening up a lead of 24 against Day.

However, he made a rare error to hand Day a chance and the former world number six swept it up to claim his third career ranking title and the first prize of £50,000.

Losing the final was a blow to Selby, as it resulted in him missing out on the chance to overtake Stephen Hendry's record of winning 11 ranking finals in a row.

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Mark Allen was the player of the first two rounds, following an event-high break of 142, but he fell at the hands of David Gilbert who got no further than the quarter finals after falling to Day.

Mark Williams produced one of the highlights of the evening session with a break of 86, that saw him act as referee at one stage in a bid to get to a century, but his run in the event came to an end at the hands of Day in the semi-finals.

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