Snooker tournament: Thepchaiya pockets snooker trophy

Thailand cueist downs Iran’s Ayouri in thrilling final.

KARACHI:

Thailand cueist Thepchaiya Un Nooh clinched the Seven-Nation International Snooker Tournament, upstaging amateur world champion and the event’s top-seed Hossein Vafaei Ayouri of Iran 7-6 in the final.

Despite being 4-0 down, Thepchaiya  won the best-of-13 encounter to stamp his authority on the tournament, which was underway at a local hotel in Karachi and featured 20 players from the UAE, Egypt, Iran, India, Bahrain, Thailand and Pakistan.

Thepchaiya  clinched the fifth and sixth frames to make it 4-2 at the interval. The balance shifted in the Thailand player’s favour as he trailed by 6-5 before the sea-saw battle continued in the final’s 12th frame.

Both cueists missed simple shots but Thepchaiya  kept his nerve to clinch the match with frame scores of 61-83, 44-80, 0-75, 28-69, 59-28, 57-54, 52-65, 80-50, 78-30, 19-87, 76-42, 91-36, 92-0, including a break of 92.

Thepchaiya  received the winner’s purse of $2,000, while Ayouri collected $1,000.

Pakistan’s top-seed Mohammad Asif was handed $100 for registering the highest break of the tournament of 136, which he compiled during his semi-final loss to Thepchaiya.

Thepchaiya said he was pleased after defeating the amateur world champion.

“I’m really happy after this win,” Thepchaiya  told The Express Tribune. “It has been a really good experience for me in Pakistan and the hospitality has been great here.”

Meanwhile, Ayouri admitted that he was not at the top of his game.

“I was suffering from food poisoning and could not perform to the best of my abilities.

“But Thepchaiya  played really well and deserved to win the championship.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2012.