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
2016 World Snooker Championship Ding fought back in the second session to trail by only one frame at 7–8, but Selby won the final two frames of the day for a 10–7 overnight lead. Some frames involved lengthy tactical battles, and play did not end at the Crucible until 00:24 local time on Monday morning. On the second day of the final, Ding again fought back to trailing by only one frame at 10–11, but Selby won three of the session's last four frames to go into the final session 14–11 ahead. Although Ding won three more frames in the evening session - coming