Thepchaiya to take on Welsh wizard in final
B3.5m prize awaits winner of 6-red showdown
>> Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-nooh faces Welsh potting machine Mark J Williams in the final of the SangSom 6-red World Championship at the BCC Hall, CentralPlaza Lardprao this afternoon.
Both Thepchaiya and Williams were in devastating mood as they stormed past their respective rivals, each spending less than two hours in the arena.
Thepchaiya was off to a good start and had little trouble in seeing off Anthony McGill of Scotland 7-3.
Two-time world champion Williams also recorded an emphatic victory, beating Hong Kong’s Marco Fu by the same scoreline.
Fu, father of two and winner of three ranking events, had it all to do as Williams, world champion in 2000 and 2003 who also made a Crucible maximum 147 in 2005, raced four clear of him in only 41 minutes.
There were no breaks of note from the 42-year-old Welshman, just steady contributions and clever safety which Fu had no answer to.
Fu did compile the two highest breaks of the match, a 70 in frame four and a 68 in frame eight and also won frame nine with a smaller run of 35.
These three breaks provided Fu with his three frame successes as Williams set about almost doubling his money for his week’s work which so far has brought him five successive victories.
As a losing semi-finalist he would have received 750,000 baht compared to a minimum 1.3 million baht for reaching the final. The winner of the tournament will earn 3.5 million baht.
Williams has been without a tournament victory since he won the 2011 German Masters.
But Williams has won 17 ranking events to stand in fifth place on the alltime list though six years is an awful long time for such a talented player not to win another title of any sort.
The Welshman who lives in Ebbw Vale with wife Joanne and their three children, said after his rapid victory over Fu: “It’s nice to get to at least another final and I want to win this one so badly someone will have to play out of their skin to beat me.
“My last final was against Mark Selby in last season’s China Open. I lost 10-8 but it was a cracking game.”
Williams took just 81 minutes on frame times to beat Fu.
“I didn’t take many chances. Marco would probably have destroyed me had I gone for everything and missed.
“I just concentrated on winning frames with a minimum of fuss and the plan worked a treat.”
The Welshman beat Michael Holt 6-2 in the quarter-finals on Thursday night when Fu ousted Graeme Dott 6-5.
A total of six Thai players took part in the world championship, which offers a total of 10 million in prize money.