Williams wins 6-red World Championship
Thai star Thepchaiya fizzles out after hot start in championship showdown in Bangkok
>> Twice world champion Mark J Williams hit Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh for six as he captured the SangSom 6-red World Championship at the BCC Hall, CentralPlaza Lardprao yesterday.
Williams defeated Thepchaiya 8-2, winning the last six frames to deny the Thai becoming only the second player to hold the title a second time having won the event in 2015.
Only Mark Davis has won two 6-red world snooker titles when he was successful in 2012 and 2013.
Welshman Williams, world champion in 2000 and 2003, collected the winner’s purse of 3.5 million baht, a record for any snooker event in Thailand, with Thepchaiya receiving 1.3 million baht.
Williams, who won all seven matches he played in during the 2017 championship and in the knockout stages won 27 of the 37 frames he was involved in, said afterwards: “Thepchaiya is very good and very fluent player. I enjoyed watching him.
“But when I came here I didn’t have any great hopes of winning this. The conditions don’t suit me with the table slow and heavy. I battled on though and am so pleased to win an event again after a six-year gap.
“This was the best I played all week. I wasn’t looking to make any big breaks in these conditions which to me are a nightmare.
“I think over the years I haven’t got any further than the last 16 so I suppose I’ve surprised myself this week. But I’ve won a lot of money playing in Thailand and China and I’ve become a good traveller.
“I used to like being out of the UK for long periods when I was a lot younger. I’m 42 now and prefer the home comforts.”
Williams returns to his Ebbw Vale home today but flies to Yushan in China for the World Open on Friday.
“I’m not going playing in the Indian Open, I didn’t enter the event. I will also probably drop out of one or two more before this season is over,” he said.
Thepchaiya said: “Mark played very well. I couldn’t take any chances and when I missed he had all the answers.”
The final began with Thepchaiya delighting his fans in a sellout crowd and a sizeable overspill watching the action behind the main table on a large screen and two smaller ones, by firing in a break of 71.
The former world champion was soon level before leading 2-1 with a clearance of 40. Thepchaiya was then somewhat lucky to win frame four in which he led 30-0.
But Williams having cleared up from t he last red stopped on 34 when he inexplicably missed the black off its spot. After a short bout of safety the Thai produced a humdinger of a pot to level at 2-2.
That just happned to be his last frame win as the crafty Welashman produced his best snooker for many a day and to which Thepchaiya had no answer. In fact in the last six frames the Thai totalled a mere 30 points and in three of them failed to pot a ball.
The trophy was given away by Suwat Liptapanlop, chairman of the event organising committee. Polapatr Suvarnazorn, advisor to the president of Thai Beverage, presented the winner’s cheque and WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson the runner-up prize.