Sim shown the door as Thian marches on
SIBU: A veteran was shown the exit while a fast rising star stayed in the title hunt for the 5th leg Sibu Swan City Snooker Championship held at Southern Point Snooker Centre Friday night.
With several top players giving the championship a miss, this could have been the best chance for 38-year-old Sim Hong Hui, dubbed ‘the Tornado’, to lift the title.
However, Sim’s march came to a halt when he was pipped by Jee Chau Kim 2-3 (35-48, 5526, 46-41, 16-50, 30-44) in the quarter-final.
“Perhaps, it’s still not my time yet to win the title. Nevertheless, I will treat my defeat as a lesson and, hopefully, to further improve on my own weaknesses,’ he said.
Sim lost the first frame but secured the next two frames for an advantage of 2-1.
In the fourth frame, Sim committed a silly blunder and allowed Jee to widen the lead before clearing the table to make it 2-2.
Both players threw caution to the wind in the decider but Jee took the clincher with a better stroke of luck.
Meanwhile, 32 year-old upstart Ricky Thian stamped his superiority when he easily defeated darkhorse Sie Leong Ung 3-0 (54-40, 67-35, 60-8) to qualify for the semifinal.
Thian has yet to lost a game enroute to the semi-final and is the impressive player in the tournament thus far.
The other semi-finalists are newcomer Michael Yao and Ting Siew Chung.
The champion will bring home RM800, the runner-up will get RM400, joint third RM200 and quarter-finalists RM100 each.
The final will be played at Southern Point Snooker Centre at 7.30pm on Sunday.