Thepchaiya Unnooh takes World Cup to Thailand again

Winning the world title crowns a breakthrough year for Thepchaiya Un-nooh. The Thai was the nation's students champion in 2002 but had to wait until July of this year to win his first ranking event on the Thai Professional Circuit, the Korat Cup, where Michael Holt and Nigel Bond featured as wildcards. In August, Thepchaiya became the first player to hit a 147 maximumbreak in the six-year history of the Thai circuit in a match against Bond. And in September, Thepchaiya won a prestigious invitational tournament with many of Asia's top players in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

...Thepchaiya Un-nooh, Thailand, wins the IBSF World Championship in Wels, Austria...

Men's final: Thepchaiya Un-nooh bt. Colm Gilcreest 11:7

Thepchaiya continued his excellent run of results in Austria. He lost in the round-robin stage to Darren Morgen, 4-2, but dropped only one frame in his six remaining group matches. In the KO stages, he won three matches on a final-frame decider before beating Xiao Guadong of China 7-4 in the semifinals. His final opponent had an even more impressive run: Colm Gilcreest conceded only one frame in six group matches and beat players like Alex Borg and Lee Page in the KO stages. The Irishman saw off Iran's Soheil Vahedi 7-5 in the semis.

In a final beween two lefthanders, Gilcreest got the better start and went 2-0 and 3-1 up before Thepchaiya turned the tables with a magnificent 143 total clearance _ the higest break of the championships, beating Gilcreest's 142 from earlier in the tournament. Thepchaiya then won four of the next five frames to take a 6-4 lead into the interval. After resuming, the Thai won three straight frames for a commanding 9-4 lead in the first-to-11 match. Gilcreest answered with a 102 and added two more to narrow the gap to 9-7, but Thepchaiya hit a 139 and finally won a tense 18th frame to close out the match 11-7. As successor to fellow Thai Atthasit Mahitthi, he earned a ticket for next season's Main Tour. Thepchaiya became the sixth Thai player to clinch the world amateur title; James Wattana had been the first in 1988.

Wattana was among a number of well-known former professional players who took part in the event in Austria. However, nor Wattana, nor Kirk Stevens or Darren Morgan - also a former winner, in 1989 - made it even to the quarterfinals. That indicates the high level of play at this amateur event, which has produced champions like Jimmy White [1980], Ken Doherty [1989], Marco Fu [1997], Stephen Maguire [2000] and Mark Allen [2004] in the past.

Women's final: Reanne Evens bt. Wendy Jans 5:3

The women's event had the expected final between defending champion Reanne Evans and 2006 winner Wendy Jans. Evans had won all her frames so far when she was taken into a decider by Hong Kong's Jacque Ip Wan In in the quarterfinals. A 4-1 victory over Ching Ching Yu earned her a place in the final. Until the semifinals, Jans had conceded just two frames in nine matches. The Belgian faced real competition against England's Emma Bonney as they shared the first four frames, but Jans won the next two to reach the final.

Without significant breaks, Jans went into a 3-2 lead before Evans won three in a row to take the trophy back to England again. It was Evans third world title after winning in 2004 and 2007 and she also topped the high-break board with a 109, the only century in the women's event. Jans has now featured in all five women's championship finals since the event was first held in 2003. She only won in Jordan in 2006, where Evans didn't play.

Masters' final: Dene O'Kane bt. Geet Sethi 5:1

New Zealand's Dene O'Kane was the dominating force in the masters' event. He won four of six group matches without dropping a frame and never had to go over full distance in the KO stage, where he had comfortable wins over Ian Doyle, Kieran McMahon and Robby Foldvari, before taking on Geet Sethi. The Indian had conceded just five frames coming into the final, which was refereed by Austria's Marius Eder, who is aiming to become a Main Tour ref in the near future. Sethi found himself soon 4-0 down. He got one on the board before O'Kane outscored him 61-13 in the last frame.

It was O'Kane's third title after also winning in 2004 and '05. He shared the high-break prize with Seeth: both players had a 109 during the event. O'Kane reached a career best 18th place on the World Snooker rankings in 1992 but failed to win a ranking tournament as a professional. He twice reached the quarterfinals of the Embassy World Championships in Sheffield and featured in one ranking final, the 1989 Hong Kong Open, but he lost to Mike Hallett 9-8 despite leading 8-6. Now aged 45, O'Kane proved in Austria that he can still produce some impressive display on the green baize.

With the finals being played, over two weeks of exciting snooker in Wels, Austria, have come to an end. The Austrian Open and the IBSF World Championships put Austria in the spotlight of the international snooker scene. The organizing committee around Christof Fichtner did a hell of a job to flawlessly stage the biggest event in Austrian snooker history. They have seen many breaks over the last couple of weeks _ now they'll sure need one themselves.

For full tournament information and results visit IBSF or Global Snooker Centre.

© text: Eric Willemsen / picture IBSF