Mark Selby of England celebrates victory after the final with John Higgins of Scotland at the World Snooker Championship 2017 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, Britain on May. 1, 2017. Mark Selby won 18-15. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

SHEFFIELD, England, May 1 -- Defending champion Mark Selby came back from 10-4 down to beat four-time winner John Higgins 18-15 to take the title of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible here on Monday.

The 33-year-old Selby, who lifted the trophy in 2017 and 2016, became the fourth player after Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan to win back-to-back titles since 1977.

Scotland's Higgins, 41, surrendered the early lead and trailed 13-11 after Monday afternoon's third session. Selby extended his lead to 16-12 before Higgins made an impressive late rally to narrow the gap to 16-15. But in the end he was no match for his unflappable and determined opponent.

Selby also pocketed the biggest prize in snooker history of 375,000 pounds and smashed Hendry's long-standing record of 740,000 pounds for the most prize money earned in a single season. Selby has won 932,000 this season.

"It's a fantastic feeling," said Selby. "I was confident coming here because of the season I'd had. I was just taking one frame at a time. When I was 10-4 down yesterday I thought there's no way in the world I was going to come back from that, I was trying to make it respectable. At one stage I was thinking I could lose with a session to spare."

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