Passakorn was the obvious favourite in front of his home crowd but there was not any shortage of applause for Sajjad, who remained impressive in the final as well.
Sajjad kicked off with a break of 64 to take the first frame before Passakorn hit back with a 60 in the second to level. But the Asian Championship runner-up Sajjad then claimed the next two frames before Passakorn unleashed breaks of 92 and 68 to even things up. Once again Sajjad took the lead but the Thai ace fought back to take the match into a deciding ninth frame.
The tense final brought out the best in Sajjad as Passakorn missed several opportunities to be snookered twice to hand the Pakistani a deserved victory.
Sajjad, who won a prize of Baht100,000, said, “This was my toughest match of the tournament. I’ve been stretched to the limit before but then I was not facing a rival of Passakorn’s class.
“I played very well in the beginning and remained positive about my chances of winning throughout the match. I gave him an opportunity at a wrong juncture and that helped him recover tremendously.”
The sixth and the final event of the 2010 Thailand Professional Circuit will be the national championship starting from September 13.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 8th, 2010.
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