Mark Selby of both the Masters and Welsh Open to Ronnie O'Sullivan, but won the Gdynia Open with a 4–1 victory over Martin Gould. Before the World Championship Selby withdrew from the PTC Finals and China Open due to personal reasons. He beat Robert Milkins 10–6, Sam Baird 13–11 and Kyren Wilson 13–8 to face Marco Fu in the semi-finals. Selby drew level at 12–12 thanks to winning a 76-minute frame, the longest in Crucible history and went on to win 17–15 with an excellent snooker on the brown in the final frame. He took a 6–0 lead over Ding Junhui in
2017 World Snooker Championship at one point. The top 16 seeds automatically qualified for the last 32. Defending champion Mark Selby was seeded 1, while other seedings were allocated based on the latest world rankings. All the other players (from 17th place in ranking) started in the first round of qualifying and were required to win three best-of-19-frame matches to reach the Crucible. Qualifying rounds were held at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield from 5 to 12 April 2017. After losing to Mark Selby in the China Open final, two-time former world champion Mark Williams failed to regain his place in