Ding sends Ratchapol packing

Chinese star Ding Junhui.

Veteran Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm last night failed in his bid to secure a place in the SangSom 6 Red World Championship semi-finals at the BCC Hall, CentralPlaza Ladprao.

The Thai snooker legend was outplayed 6-2 by Chinese star Ding Junhui.

Earlier, Ratchapol, better known to snooker fans as James Wattana, became the first Thai to enter the quarter-finals yesterday afternoon, when he defeated China's Zhou Yuelong 6-5.

Some four hours later, rising star Akani Songsermsawad followed him into the last eight after beating Scot Stephen Maguire by the same score.

But it was touch and go for both players who might well have lost the deciding frame. Ratchapol required a snooker on the final green. Zhou missed the first of them and eventually the Thai cleared to the pink to complete victory.

Equally thrilling was Akani's match with Maguire.

The Thai, 23 on Monday, led the Scot 3-1 and just when it appeared he would stretch his lead to three frames, a positional shot on the yellow went wrong and Maguire cleared the colours to close to 2-3 on the black.

In the previous three frames, Maguire didn't pot a ball as Akani swept in breaks of 73 and 62 in two of them.

The Scot then got his act together as Akani sat in his chair doing a lot of negative head shaking. Maguire had a break of 62 in frame six and went on to lead 5-4.

Akani though showed his fighting qualities by forcing the decider with a clearance of 64 but in frame 11, Maguire conceded the Thai was "lucky, very lucky.

"It was game over when I got in at the start of the decider and potted a yellow and red but coming up the table for the black, the cue ball glanced off the pink and partially snookered me on it.

"It was only by a fraction and I still had a go at the black, unfortunately hitting the pink first and leaving the table at the mercy of my opponent."

Akani didn't waste his chance and a clearance of 58 carried him to victory. The world No.76 was up against six times Arab champion Mohamed Shehab of the United Arab Emirates in the quarters.

Shehab caused the biggest upset of the 10-million-baht tournament yesterday by knocking out the holder and world champion, Mark Williams 6-3 in the last 16 round. The Welshman was unbeaten since winning this event a year ago.