Thai star Thepchaiya Un-Nooh pulled off one of the wins of his career when he knocked former world champion Judd Trump out of the BetVictor Scottish Open in a nine frame thriller at Meadowbank.
The players were tied at 4-4 and level at 55-55 after a high-pressure final frame in which Un-Nooh (pictured) kept his nerve to make some telling pots. He moved 55-48 ahead and missed the black while using the rest and Trump moved to to level a 55-55.
The black was re-spotted and Un-Nooh made sure of his first win over the Englishman when Trump missed the black into the bottom pocket. He made no mistake, clenching his fist in triumph when the ball disappeared after a tense, three-hour battle on the main table.
The runner-up in the 2019 World Open said: “I am so happy. This is the first time I beat him as a professional and we have played many times.”
In fact, Trump beat Un-Nooh 10-9 in the first round of the World Championship at The Crucible, Sheffield, and the Englishman went on to win the title in 2019.
He has, however, won ranking event, the 2019 Shoot Out, and revealed: “After I potted the pink (in the final frame) I thought I am going to pot it (the black) for sure. I am not good with the rest because I am not practicing a lot with the rest. Something told me you have to go for the pot and the ball was left.”
Onto the deciding black and the game-winner, Un-Nooh said: “It was quite an easy black.”
The delighted player, who notched breaks of 79 and 104 in the win, said: “Today, I am not happy with my form I give him a lot of chances and he gave me the possibility. Yesterday I played better than today and, hopefully, I play better tomorrow.”
Earlier, both players were anxious not to make a mistake in the first frame and 12 minutes went by as they played cat and mouse with the cue ball.
And it was the player from Thailand who broke the deadlock with a red to the bottom left pocket. He moved quickly onto 24, succeeding with a tricky black with white near to the cushion.
He took the well-constructed break to 38 then missed a potable red into the green pocket, a big mistake. It rattled the jaws but refused to drop.
Trump came to the table and he passed Thepchaiya’s score with a black to the bottom right pocket with two reds open and one tucked in near the left cushion.
Seconds later he failed to sink the black into the bottom right and The Thai was back at the table and he potted the last red left and then a black with the colours scattered, but he missed a yellow from the spot.
Trump was back at the table but, with the cue ball in baulk and the yellow behind the black at the other end, he missed, once, twice, three times and then on a fourth occasion, and the score moved on to 71-53 against the Englishman.
Finally, in attempt five, he stuck the yellow but that allowed his opponent back and he polished off the yellow, brown, green and cut back to the blue. The frame finished when he sent the pink into the yellow bag. Score 91-53.
Frame two was less eventful and Trump dominated after Thepchaiya, nickamed The Speed King, missed a long red into a bottom pocket. He strode to the table, potted a red to the bottom right, then a black and methodically worked the balls, splitting the reds at 34-0 and taking advantage.
He was soon onto 94 and cut a difficult red into the bottom left which was appreciated by the big crowd. And they were applauding again seconds later when the black disappeared to take the Bristol-born player to 104 and to level the match at 1-1.
Frame three saw the tall, 37-year-old Thai player make a rash dash for a red into the bottom left, leaving it lying, and Trump stepped-in to claim a tricky green before failing with a red out of a cluster when he looked to be going well.
Thepchaiya passed Trump’s break of 26 with a black and, holding a 52-26 advantage, cut the pink to give himself an angle on a red on the left cushion. It disappeared and he ran out a frame winner with a score of 79-26.
Trump looked to respond quickly and he did with a stunning break of 102. It followed a missed red by his opponent into the bottom right pocket.
He methodically moved the cue ball around the table to amass a break of 80 with four reds remaining and he finished the action with a black into the bottom left bag for his eight-minute ton, massively appreciated by the audience, to level at 2-2. This had all the appearance of being a marathon.
Trump was on the attack in frame five, compiling a break of 43 in this best of nine-frame, quarter-final clash, but he let Thepchaiya back in for a solitary point before returning to business but he played safe.
The Thai player, who turned professional in 2009 before opting out a year later and then returning to the tour in 2012, attempted to do the same but he cut the ball into a pocket and Trump was off and running again.
He claimed a beak of 52 but missed on a yellow. Un-Nooh conceded and 33-year-old Trump moved 3-2 ahead.
Un-Nooh got off to a flyer in the next, moving swiftly to 39, but he let his opponent back in and Trump, nicknamed the Juddernaut, moved past him with a red then black.
But his break came to an abrupt halt with the score at 61-49 when he missed a green into the green pocket which set up a bout of snookers and attempts to keep the cue ball safe. Trump potted the cue ball attempting a tricky green nudging Un-Nooh on to 53 with 25 points left on the table.
It was all to play for. Then Trump, one of the top names on the circuit, missed a snooker on the green. Score 61-57 and the tension mounted, particularly as there was a debate about the respotting of the cue ball near the black.
Un-Nooh potted the green into the bottom left but missed the brown along the top cushion. Score 61-60. A nail-biter. More cat and mouse and Trump, sixth on the list of all-time winners, just failed with a snooker behind the blue.
More fencing with the brown followed but Un-Nooh slotted the brown into the bottom right, followed by the blue, which lipped in, then the pink and for a 75-61 win and 3-3.
Trump continued in his pragmatic fashion and accumulated a break of 86 to move 4-3 ahead. The break arrived in eight minutes, but Un-Nooh was not in the mood to let his rival take the match.
He rattled in a seemingly nerveless six-minute break of 104 to level and 4-4 and take this hugely entertaining match to the wire.
The crowd were loving this and the tension mounted as Trump, who had posted breaks for 104 and 102 during the match, continued to put up numbers unaware of the drama which was to unfold.
Later, Kyren Wilson led fellow Englishman Gary Wilson, the man who put favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan out in an early round, 3-1 in their quarter-final match-up.
But battling Gary eventually won 5-4 and later admitted: “I was dead and buried and I had no game, nothing to rely on. It was scrappy and managed to nick frames and I had to rely on him missing a few balls and give me a chance to nick one more frame. It wasn’t anything special, I dragged him down to be honest.”
He added: “I am just happy to get through in all honesty and I was really trying to hang in there and, in the last three or four frames, I was doing all sorts to try and wing it.”
He dismissed a suggestion that his form was a hangover from the win over O’Sullivan and the man nicknamed the Tyneside Terror admitted: “I’ve not been playing well, but I had a pretty good game against Ronnie, things went pretty well, and pretty bad there but to still get through is a massive bonus. I know I can still win games, I regard myself as having a little bit of bottle, a little bit of nous around the table.”
Gary went ahead in the first, but only just, winning it 65-64 with a break of 65. Kyren had opened the match with a break of 50, but Gary then lost the second 65-61 and the third 73-17 as the man from Kettering rattled in a 73 break. His back was against the wall.
The fourth also went to Kyren 81-39 as he compiled a break of 73 but then the tough man from Tyne and Wear dug deep. The took the fifth 71-30, the sixth 65-17, with a break of 60, and the seventh 80-56.
The going got tough in the eighth but Gary rattled in a match-winning break of 74 to take the frame 81-1 and claim a semi-final berth.
In the two night matches, Australian Neil Robertson, a former world champion, beat Mark Selby 5-2 and Ricky Walden lost 5-1 to joe O’Connor.
The semi-final pairings are O’Connor v Robertson at 19.00 and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in against Gary Wilson at 13.00.
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