Very high quality final.

Congrats Mark Selby, commiserations Ronnie.

Two world titles, two UK championships and three Masters...Selby deffo in the top 10 of all time for me now. A lot harder to win the triple crown events multiple times now than in the Davis and Hendry eras.

Superb final, and well played both players. Excellent standard, with centuries galore in that final session.

The final century there from Mark Selby had some superb shots under pressure to clinch it out, and showed just why he's world number 1. Ronnie O'Sullivan shouldn't be disappointed though, he played really well and was the first to say he was beaten by the better player on the day.

Mark now joins a unique club of only six who have won all the Triple Crown events at least twice.

Got a sense during that Ronnie interview that he may not be far off retiring.

Is Mark Selby the only player to beat Ronnie in the final of the World Championship, UK Championship and The Masters

Very odd and rather unpleasant behaviour from some sections of the crowd for this post-match presentation.

Well done Mark Selby, always just that bit ahead of Ronnie and confirming the order of things. Selby is a tremendous all round player and this is his time. Even allowing that its hard to dominate the game in the same way as it was in the Davis/Hendry era, he needs to grab as much as he can in the next few years.

Incredible final. Congratulations to Mark Selby. Multiple world, UK and Masters champion so has to go down as one of the all time greats. He's still only 33 as well so still a lot more tournaments to win for sure.

As for Ronnie, I'm sure he'll win another tournament before long. He's too good not to. Just unlucky to come up against Judd, John Higgins and Mark Selby all playing their best in finals.

After the confetti, they should have to play one more frame.

Not unusual with Ronnie finals sadly. Always has very vocal fans. All the "come on Ronnie" shouts when his opponent misses a shot etc. It's not Ronnie's fault of course. But it must be annoying to his opponent and at times it's pretty disrespectful.

My Top Ten players of all time

Ronnie O Sullivan
Stephen Hendry
Steve Davis
Ray Reardon
Alex Higgins
John Higgins
Joe Davis
Mark Selby
Jimmy White
Mark Williams

Yes, as Ronnie has only ever lost the one world final

Well done selby fully desverd great final

Did Ronnie give his runners up medal to someone in the audience then, or was that his girlfriend/wife?

Could be wrong but i think most of the commotion was down to a Selby fan at the end telling Ronnie to F off back to London. There seemed to be two very loudmouth antagonists on opposing sides. I think they had been winding each other up. Not heard that much disrepect from the crowd to a player before...not very dignified.

Thought I heard a spectator say the F-word during O'Sullivan's interview and say about Selby during his interview.

It will be worse at the Masters.

Ronnie has been retiring for 20 years. It's his thing.

Think he just gave it to a passer by. Isnt he going out with Laila Rouass the raven haired actress.

Not sure who his girlfriend is but the girl he was giving it to in the audience seemed to be saying something to the effect of "What, are you serious?"....or words to that effect.
I thought he was trying to give it away earlier, but no one seemed to take it....a few minutes later the camera was back on him and he was handing it to a red haired lady who seemed very surprised.

Yeah someone shouted "We know you're the number one Ronnie" or something along those lines and it sounded like some people took exception to that comment which then led to a "f**k off". Not sure it was directed at Ronnie as such.

Just flicked over to watch Have I Got News For You on Dave from May 2014 and they've just shown a clip from a Selby vs O'Sullivan match.

That confused me for a second.

An interesting debate earlier on the funding situation in snooker - I never realised the prize money was so heavily skewed towards the top players. Such a situation cannot be tenable long term surely or else there will be a mass exodus of lower ranking players leaving the sport, leading to a player shortage.
Is this the issue Ronnie was referring to earlier in the week when he talked about "snooker being like a car boot sale"?

Having seen the Masters draw earlier, I now know who I'll be seeing on Monday 16th January, and I have to say there'll be two decent matches on.

Be my first time at Ally Pally (having previously done the last 9 Worlds and the UK at York, plus Snooker Shootout and the World Grand Prix in Llandudno) so be interesting to see how that venue works out.

You have to pay an entry fee to play at the events. I never knew that. I assumed if you qualified as a pro you didn't have to pay to actually participate at pro snooker tournaments! Fergal O'Brien said you need 30 grand a year to cover all your expenses. A huge amount! You could argue Barry Hearn's format is intentionally making it harder for players to make decent money - paying for airline trips, hotel costs, entry fees. All adds up. And the format suits the richer players so as you say, it may lead to a player shortage.

Yes it's alright Barry saying we don't pay losers who go out in first round but why not do like JP suggested and have players in the first round playing people closer to their ranking not someone like Higgins or trump because that's a first round exit for sure.