Thepchaiya misses maximum again, falls to Higgins at Crucible
Qualifier Thepchaiya Un-Nooh lost to fourtime champion John Higgins 10-7 in the first round of the World Championship in Sheffield on Wednesday.
Debutant Thepchaiya, the fifth player from Thailand to compete in the final stages of the championship, put on a spirited performance against Higgins but the Englishman kept his cool to quell the threat from the world No.58.
The match provided the fireworks that many predicted it would. Both players threatened to fire in the first maximum break at the Crucible since Stephen Hendry’s 147 in 2012.
Higgins was first to attempt the magic break, potting 13 reds with 13 blacks before breaking down on 104. That came in an opening session which saw the Scot establish a 6-3 advantage.
When they returned the pair came storming out of the blocks, Thepchaiya composed a quick-fire break of 121 to reduce his deficit and Higgins responded with a contribution of 81 to make it 7-4. It was then the Thai’s turn to have a go at snooker’s perfect run.
Thepchaiya famously missed final blacks for 147 breaks on two occasions in the 2015/16 season, at the UK Championship and World Championship qualifying. On Wednesday he potted 14 reds and 14 blacks before missing the final red to the top left corner with his score at 112.
The Thai continued to impose himself on the match, closing the gap to 7-6 and then spurning an opportunity to restore parity. Higgins punished him with a break of 77 to move 8-6 ahead and eventually emerged a 10-7 victor.
Higgins will now face world No.30 Jack Lisowski in the second round.
Higgins said: “Thepchaiya maybe goes for one shot too many, but he’s brilliant to watch and I’m delighted to win 10-7. I knew he would hit me with maybe three frames where I wouldn’t get a shot.
“Tonight at 7-6, he took his eye off a red when he had me in all sorts of bother. I let him in but he missed the red when all the balls were there. I managed to get a two-frame advantage again and that settled me down.”
Thepchaiya was disappointed to once again miss out on a maximum break prize, with potentially £50,000 up for grabs for a maximum break.
“I was thinking about the big prize money! I wanted to show my supporters that I could do it, but I missed the last red. It was really hard to get back for the black and I missed it,” said Thepchaiya.
“It annoyed me, it got on my mind. The last blacks from two years ago still haunt me. The thoughts of those two black balls came into my mind, so I missed the red.”
Meanwhile Neil Robertson became the fifth former champion to crash out in the first round on Wednesday when he lost 10-5 to Robert Milkins.
Robertson, who was world champion in 2010, joins former winners Mark Selby, Stuart Bingham, Graeme Dott and Shaun Murphy in making an early exit in Sheffield.