Noppon, Akani seal 6-red wins
Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham carried on where he left off 24 hours earlier with a second victory to remain unbeaten in the SangSom 6-red World Championship group stages at the BCC Hall, CentralPlaza Ladprao yesterday.
The 25-year-old, winner of the Thailand 6-red title earlier this year, had beaten title-holder Ding Junhui 5-1 in his opening group match and is now certain of a place in the last-16 knockout round.
And to prove that his win over the Chinese star was no fluke, Noppon held on in his next match to pip Tom Ford 5-4 following an extraordinary fightback.
Noppon won the opening frame 38-0 then took a back seat as Ford, a late replacement for Belgium’s Luca Brecel, rolled in breaks of 66 and 60 to lead 2-1 as the Thai scored only six points in those two frames.
Five of the last six frames were dominated by either Noppon or Ford though the Thai, a former world and Asian U21 champion, had it all to do with the Englishman leading 4-2.
Though Noppon didn’t pot a ball in frames five and six, a black ball game went in favour of the Thai by a single point as he closed the gap to 4-3.
Noppon then won the last two frames 41-0 and 40-0.
The victory kept Noppon at the top of the group table and the Thai will advance as the group winner or runner-up.
Thepchaiya Un-nooh, winner of the event in 2015, won his opening match 5-3 against England’s Kyren Wilson who won the 2015 Shanghai Masters.
Wilson, a quarter finalist at the 2016 and 2017 world championship, led Thepchaiya 2-0 and 3-1.
But the Thai, who didn’t pot a ball in the first two frames, bounced back by winning four of the last five frames to seal victory.
Thailand’s Akani Songsermsawad secured one of the most impressive wins of his career, beating 2015 world snooker champion Stuart Bingham 5-1.
Passakorn Suwannawat was another Thai winner yesterday when he defeated Welshman Ryan Day 5-2.