three frames against Mark Williams to win 10–8 and claim his fourth ranking title of the season. In the quarter-finals of the World Championship, he defeated Marco Fu 13–3 with a . He faced Ding in the semi-finals, taking a 16–13 lead before Ding closed the gap to 15–16 behind; Selby then won the 32nd frame to reach his third world final in four years. In a repeat of the 2007 final against John Higgins, which Selby had lost 13–18, he fell behind 4–10 before recovering to win 12 of the next 14 frames, eventually closing out the match 18–15 to win his third World Championship, becoming the fourth player—after Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan—to retain the world title at the Crucible. This was Selby's fifth ranking title of the season, tying him with Hendry and Ding as the only players to have won five ranking events in a single season. Selby earned £932,000 during the 2016–17 season, a record amount of prize money for any one season. 2017–18 season In the 2017–18 snooker season, Selby was eliminated in the first round of the Hong Kong Masters after a 3–5 defeat to eventual champion Neil Robertson. His first ranking tournament of the season was the China Championship where he was defeated 4–5 by Zhou Yuelong in the second round. He failed to progress past the fourth round of the Paul Hunter Classic in defence of his title, losing 1–4 to eventual champion Michael White. He was defeated 2–5 by Lee Walker in the first round of the World Open, followed by a 2–4 defeat to Stuart Bingham in the quarter-finals of the European Masters, and a third round exit at the English Open where he lost 1–4 to Xiao Guodong. Selby successfully defended his International Championship title in November, to claim his first ranking title of the season. After surviving a fightback from Mark Allen, who trailed 3–8 and 7–9 in the final, Selby prevailed 10–7. As reigning World Snooker Champion, he qualified automatically for the 2017 Champion of Champions, but was defeated 4–6 in the quarter-finals by Luca Brecel. Defending his title at the UK Championship, he was eliminated 3–6 by Scott Donaldson in the last 64. In January, he played Mark Williams in the first round of the Masters, in a repeat of the previous year's event, where Selby had won their first-round encounter 6–5. However,