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 frames were shared until Selby won the final two frames to win the match 17–15. The 32nd frame also lasted more than an hour. Ding Junhui was the first qualifier to contest the final since Judd Trump was beaten by John Higgins in 2011. The Chinese player also became the first Asian finalist at the Crucible, and the match drew a peak television audience of over 42 million in China on CCTV-5. In the first session of the final, Mark Selby took a 6–0 lead, before Ding won the last two frames of the session to leave Selby 6–2 ahead.