By Elliott West
“I was a student at the Nakhon Nayok Technical College back home and had never ever thought of playing snooker professionally.”
“There was a small snooker club next to our home in Nakhon Nayok and my two elder brothers used to go there. That is how it started. It was just a pastime for all of us.”
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Introduction
Thailand has been a hotbed of snooker over the years with James Wattana being the most famous. In ensuing years a stream of players have been produced with the most exciting being, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Regarded as one of the fastest players on the main tour, Un-Nooh averages less than seventeen seconds per shot and is widely respected and feared by his colleagues. His humble background is echoed in his sentiments whether winning or losing a match, he still salutes his opponent with traditional Thai thank you hand gesture. Quietly spoken, Thepchaiya reserves his inner fire for the snooker table and like a great artist, leaves his mark on the physical canvas.
Background
Turning professional in 2009, this man, tall in stature with a shot of black hair, exploded onto the snooker scene after winning the World Amateur Championship in 2008. This was quickly followed by his win in the 2015 Six Red Championship in his native Bangkok, when he beat Liang Wenbo, 8-2 in the final. Good runs also followed in the same year with semi-final finishes in the Indian Open and the International Championship.
In 2016, Un-Nooh made the first of his two maximum breaks at the Paul Hunter Classic. The Thai had previously narrowly missed the holy grail of a 147 in the 2015 UK Championship and 2016 World Championship qualifiers when he missed the black on both occasions. He reached the semi- final of this event and the World Open, climbing to 33 in the world rankings as a result.
A good run again by the Thai in the 2017 Six Red Challenge, resulted in Thepchaiya reaching the final where he lost 2-8 to Mark Williams. This was followed by him in 2018, reaching the televised stage of the World Championship for the first time. On this occasion, he lost to John Higgins in the first round.
The highlight of his career so far has to be in his win in the 2019 Shootout. Beating Michael Holt in the final. He also made a 139 break, the highest in the history of the tournament. Panned by some critics as not being a serious event, the Shootout has now become a ranking event and has been instrumental in the careers of such players as Michael Holt and Michael Georgiou before he fell off the tour.
Since winning the Shootout, Thepchaiya has displayed impressive play, reaching the last 32 of the 2019 World Championship, losing to Judd Trump, 10-9 and the final of the Yushan World Open where he lost to Judd again, 10-5. A sweetener to his defeat, was that he picked up his biggest pay cheque to date, £75,000 for being runner-up. He also qualified for the 2020 World Championship for only the third time, losing to Ronnie O’Sullivan, 10-1.
Conclusion
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is clearly an impressive player and with time, has the potential to be a prolific player. Having now become 16th in the rankings, the world is definitely his oyster and his attacking, fast flair for play, is a joy to watch. Thailand is definitely a key player on the snooker circuit and still attracts a large audience in its homeland. Hopefully some tournaments will be added to the snooker calendar in the future to showcase the sheer brilliance of players such as Noppon Saengkham, Dechawat Poomjaeng, Sunny Akani and Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon.
