Mark Selby stands alone: Breaks tie for most ranking titles won in China

Englishman Selby secured the 26th ranking event title of his illustrious career last week when he defeated qualifier Noppon Saengkham, 10-6, in the final to win the 2026 China Open.

That pushed him up to joint-seventh - alongside Neil Robertson - on the all-time list of most decorated ranking event winners, but also put him clear on top of two other categories in snooker’s history books.

The Taiyuan triumph was Selby’s fourth China Open crown, making him the outright most successful player in the tournament’s history having previously been tied on three titles with Mark Williams. All four glories have come within the last six editions, and he was also runner-up in 2011 and 2013.

Selby’s latest trophy lift on the World Snooker Tour also represented the eighth ranking event title that he has won in China - more than anyone else, having been level on seven with both Judd Trump and Ding Junhui.

The first of those eight accolades came at the 2011 Shanghai Masters where he ousted Williams, 10-9, to claim the second ranking title of his career.

It was later in the decade - where Selby enjoyed his peak dominance within the sport during which he won multiple World Championships and was enjoying a long stint as the world number one - when he became a regular winner on Chinese soil.

As mentioned before, Selby won three China Open titles within the space of four years - in 2015, 2017 and 2018. He actually withdrew from the 2016 staging, so at one stage was technically on a 21-match winning streak in the competition.

In 2016, Selby and Ding were involved in several big match-ups on the professional circuit, starting with snooker’s blue riband fixture when Selby won 18-14 in that year’s World Championship final.

Just a few a months later, Ding got a measure of revenge by defeating his peer 10-6 in the Shanghai Masters title tie, but Selby had the last laughs that season - and quite significant ones - with a 10-1 crushing of Ding in the 2016 International Championship final in Daqing, and a 17-15 semi-final victory at the Crucible Theatre in 2017 on his way to retaining the world title.

In 2017, Selby denied Mark Allen, 10-7, in the final to successfully defend the International Championship, and in 2018 he added another new entry to his bulging CV when he pipped John Higgins, 10-9, for the China Championship title.

Away from ranked action, Selby has other notable successes in China. The first of his six (at the time of writing) maximum 147 breaks in professional competition came at the 2009 Jiangsu Classic, and he defeated Ali Carter 9-7 in the final to win the 2011 Wuxi Classic. Just several weeks on from Wuxi he recorded his maiden ranking crown in China, in Shanghai.

Selby - who is in the five-way conversation to be the world number one this month - has the opportunity to rack up another Far Eastern triumph at the upcoming 2026 Wuhan Open. The four-time World Champion is scheduled to face former European Masters Champion Fan Zhengyi in the last 64 on Monday.