KARACHI – ANISUDDIN KHAN – Second seed Thepchaiya Un-Nooh of Thailand pulled himself back from the brink to transform certain defeat into victory to clinch the Jubilee Insurance Seven-nation Snooker Championship crown here on Friday.
Thepchaiya defeated current amateur world champion Hossein Vafaei Ayouri of Iran in a nail-biting final by seven frames to six just when the Iranian was within hand shaking distance of the title. The luck, which supported the Iranian in the semi-final against Pakistan’s M Sajjad, deserted the reigning world champion at the crucial moment in the best of thirteen frames final. Hossein could not win one frame from the last three that were between him and the crown. The Thai won 61-83, 44-80, 0-75, 28-69, 59-28, 57-54, 52-65, 80-50, 78-30, 19-87, 76-42, 91-36, 92-0.
There was huge similarity between the semi-final and the final that the Iranian played during the last 24 hours. In the semi-final against Sajjad, Hossein supported by luck turned the tables on his Pakistani opponent which was decisively leading 5-3 in the best eleven frame contest and needed just one frame from the last three. The Iranian escaped defeat when Sajjad made costly mistakes.
In the final, the Iranian was at the receiving end and suffered the same fate that his semi-final Pakistani opponent had suffered. Leading 6-4 at on stage in the final Vafaei needed just one frame from the remaining three but he failed and the Thai recovered to clinch them to win by seven frames to six.
The contest lived up his true billing. It had all the elements of thrill and drama and went full thirteen frames distance. No one could have predicted the final outcome of the contest when Vafaei raced to 4-0 frames lead before Thepchaiya pulled two back. When the Iranian won seventh frame to increase his frame lead to 5-2, the Thai once again fought back to make the score 4-5. But when Vafaei won 10th frame 87-19 and was in 6-4 frames advantage, it looked that he would wrap up the final because he had three frames in hand to do that.
At this stage, Thepchaiya made agreat comeback and clinched all the remaining three frames on trot including the decisive 13th with 92 points break to stun the world championship. – nation
