In his match against Xu Si in the German Masters, Mark Selby was behind 32-75 when Xu Si missed the yellow on the colors. This was the decider.
48 minutes later, Selby had gotten five snookers, but Xu had potted yellow and green to make the score 52-84. Selby pocketed the brown, so he would have needed two five-point snookers to tie, but the cue ball went in-off the black. He had a chance to win while getting seven snookers.
Excited to find a video of this! Selby can be absolute granite! He has been off his game for a year or two, but I have long had so much admiration for him as a competitor.
I remember thinking that he seemed to bring something new to the game in terms of all-round match-winning skills. In particular, a fantastic 'B game': When playing at his best, he has it all, long potting, break building, safety. But his stand-out feature for me was his ability to recognise when he was not totally on-song and adapt so well and seemingly so comfortably; adjust his shot selection (and presumably, mind state) so as to optimize performance outcomes to the skills he was actually delivering, rather than those he knew he was capable of delivering.
So he goes into a slump mid-match, and still manages to salvage a 3-5 score line for the session, whereas others go 2-6 or 1-7 down. And always the prospect of coming back hard in the next session. So difficult to shake off.
To me, a player who by contrast shows off Selby's skill set so well is Sean Murphy. Another player I have huge admiration for, but different in nature. He always gives me the impression of approaching a match as if he is playing his (brilliant) best, and then when he misses a difficult shot looks astonished; but then carries on attempting shots of the difficulty as if whatever has happened was an aberration, and that reversion to the mean is inevitable.
Both fantastic talents though.
Edit: Selby does bring to mind another fave of mine, Cliff Thorburn, in some respects, although quite different players and prob should not compare too closely players from different eras
