Thepchaiya Un-Nooh

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
birthday	18th April 1985 (age 35)
nationality	Thailand
professional	2009/10, 2012–
Prize money	£ 686,562 (as of August 30, 2020)
Highest break	147 (2 ×) ( Paul Hunter Classic 2016 ; English Open 2018 )
Century Breaks	111 (as of August 30, 2020)
Main tour successes
World championships	-
Ranking tournament victories	1
Minor tournament victories	-
World rankings
Highest WRL place	32 (October 2016)
Current WRL location	20 (as of August 17, 2020)

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh ( Thai เทพ ไชยา อุ่น หนู ; born April 18, 1985 in Nakhon Nayok Province , central Thailand ) is a Thai snooker player . He celebrated his greatest sporting success by winning the 2019 Snooker Shoot-Out in Watford .

Career

Qualification for the Main Tour

By winning the IBSF World Snooker Championship in 2008, Thepchaiya qualified for the Main Tour for the first time . Before that he took part in the last two PIOS tournaments (a tournament series for amateurs). He was even able to win one of the two tournaments (including victories over Ben Woollaston and Alfie Burden ), so that at the end of the PIOS season he even finished 24th of 127th places, although he only took part in two of eight tournaments.

During his debut season on the Main Tour, he was unable to earn enough points to maintain his professional status. His best result was reaching the Round of 48 at the 2009 UK Championship .

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh at the German Masters 2013

In the 2010/11 season he took part - again as an amateur - only in the World Open 2010 and in one of the twelve PTC tournaments . In the end, he tried to qualify for the upcoming professional season via the newly introduced Q School tournaments. However, he failed in all three attempts at the latest in the quarter-finals (against Zhang Anda , David Gilbert and Michael Leslie ).

For the 2012/13 season , Thepchaiya again received professional player status thanks to one of the four Asian wildcards for the Main Tour. In September 2012, the WPBSA opened an investigation into suspicious betting patterns between him and Steve Davis during the match at the third UK PTC event . However, no evidence was found that either player was responsible in any way.

2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons

Thepchaiya caused a surprise at the Paul Hunter Classic 2013 when he defeated Neil Robertson 4-0. In qualifying for the German Masters 2014 , he defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 5: 4, but was eliminated in the next round with 0: 5 against Jack Lisowski . At the Haikou World Open 2014 Thepchaiya made it into the round of 16 of a world ranking tournament for the first time. In the game against Graeme Dott he missed the chance of a maximum break when he missed the colors pink during the game; he lost the match 2-5.

At the Xuzhou Open 2015 Thepchaiya reached the final of a professional tournament for the first time with a 4-1 win over Mark Williams . There he had to admit defeat to Joe Perry 1: 4. Shortly afterwards he made it into the semifinals again at the Indian Open , where he lost to Ricky Walden 3: 4 after a 3-0 lead. Previously, he had prevailed against defending champions Ding Junhui , Luca Brecel and Mark Davis , among others .

2015/16 season

Thepchaiya at the German Masters 2014

In September 2015, Thepchaiya became the first non-British player to win the 6-Red World Championship by beating Liang Wenbo 8-2 in the final . He defeated the top players Judd Trump , Marco Fu and the then world champion Stuart Bingham . It is Thepchaiya's only triumph at a professional tournament so far.

At the Haining Open he reached the quarterfinals, where he was defeated by Jimmy Robertson 3: 4. A week later, he even made it to the semifinals of the International Championship after winning five deciders in a row, including against Mark Williams and Mark Allen . In the semifinals he had to admit defeat to David Gilbert 5: 9.

In the UK Championship he managed a series of 140 points; he missed the last black on the way to his first maximum break. He then lost to Neil Robertson 2: 6. At the World Grand Prix , after winning over Mark Allen and Marco Fu, he again made it to the quarterfinals, where he lost to Ding Junhui in the decider (3: 4). In qualifying for the World Cup against Anthony McGill , he again missed the last black for a maximum and was eliminated with 7:10. Thepchaiya finished the season with his best place in the world rankings in 33rd place.

Season 2016/17

Thepchaiya narrowly missed qualifying for the Riga Masters , where he lost to John Higgins 3: 4. At the World Open he caused the biggest surprise of the tournament with victories over reigning world champion Mark Selby as well as Alan McManus and Indian Open winner Anthony McGill. On August 27, 2016, after failing twice in the preseason, he managed his first maximum break at the Paul Hunter Classic .

Season 2018/19

Thepchaiya, known for being one of the fastest players in professional snooker, won the 2019 snooker shoot-out at Watford . In the special format, the players only have 15 or 10 seconds per push and the Thai was the only one in the season who had an average push time of less than 17 seconds in the professional tournaments. In the final he defeated Michael Holt with a break of 74 points. Already in the semifinals he had set a record in the professional shoot-out tournaments with a 139 break. Winning the title meant his first win at a world ranking tournament at the age of 33.

World Cup 2020

At the World Snooker Championship he lost his first round match against Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-1. It was the fastest World Cup game of all time (108 minutes). The previous record was held by Shaun Murphy with 149 minutes.

successes

IBSF World Snooker Championship :	2008
6-Red World Championship :	2015
Snooker Shoot-Out  :	2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Profile of Thepchaiya Un-Nooh on CueTracker (as of October 31, 2018)
2. ↑ World Snooker determined in the match of Steve Davis ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. snookermania.de 
3. ↑ Steve Davis v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh match cleared by WPBSA bbc.co.uk
4. ↑ O'Sullivan celebrates victory in record time. August 3, 2020, accessed August 16, 2020 . 

Web links

Commons : Thepchaiya Un-Nooh  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Player profile (prosnookerblog.com)
• Article about Thepchaiya Un-Nooh ( Thepchaiya Un-nooh: A star in the making? Prosnookerblog.com, November 13, 2008)
• Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the snooker Database (English)

Note on Thai names : This article addresses people by their first name.