Thepchaiya reaches glory in the 6 Red World Championship!
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| It was Un-Nooh's first career title |
For the delight of his home fans, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh became the first Thai player to win the 6 Red World Championship in Thailand, winning the final in style beating Liang Wenbo 8-2.
Like I use to say, the 6 Red is a mix of good safeties and long pots, because if you knock in a good long pot you're just half a dozen shots away from winning the frame, what is nearly a certain in nowadays standard, but at the other side you gotta have a strong safety game not to give your opponents any chance, and it's really harder to play safe in the 6 Red because there are lesser balls to make your rescue in the top of the table and the way back to the baulk if your opponent attempt a long pot, is easier. So, different from those shot-clocks events, I think this one counts much more for your practice, and I think the players who had a go for it this year will be strong in the Shanghai Masters because they've got the rhythm as well, even though it's gonna be a little bit strange in the start with 9 reds added to the table although if they get trough their first matches they will be up for it.
Going back to the results, it was a well deserved title for Un-Nooh who was the best in the safety and long potting for the whole week. Even though, in the final Wenbo didn't have many, but had mistakes in crucial moments of the match. The Chinese should be leading 5(15)1 and was trailing 2-4, that gave confidence and pulled Un-Nooh to life as he stormed winning the last 7 frames of the match.
The big surprise for me in this tournament was another Thai player, Boonyarit Kaettikun, who lost his first 4 matches but had a 5-1 win in the last Group's match that unbelievably kept him in the tournament, knocking out John Higgins in the Group phase. But his magics didn't finished there, he defeated Michael Holt and Ryan Day in the Last 32 and Last 16 respectively to find his best ever result in a Quarter Final of the 6 Red World Championship. But then his magical run met the end in a 1-7 defeat against eventual champion Un-Nooh on Friday.
Although all this buzz will come to nothing in the end, as Kaettikun isn't currently on the professional tour and we might only hear of him again next year.
This can be "not one of the most prestigious events on the calendar", but with this win Un-Nooh pocketed around 45 thousand pounds and he could be at the Champion of Champions in November depending on who wins the up coming events. As well the Thai player will always be seen and named as a World Champion whatever happens.
Just got to have a word about the crowd too, it was really big and excited all the week and the support they had for their home players were incredible, their knowledge of the game either. Obviously WPBSA got to be well congratulated for this.
The Shanghai Masters is the next event in the calendar, and there won't be much of rest room for the players as it gets underway this Monday (14) in China. It's hard to predict a winner for this tournament because I can't see a player who have played two great tournaments so far this season, but my picks are two players who haven't got the toughest draw - even though there's no easy match in a 32-man event - and are trying to come back to the top: Stuart Bingham the defending champion, and Ding Junhui the 2013 winner.
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