With a new formula introduced during this year's edition of the Thailand 9 Ball Championship, the aim was to take the competition to new heights and increase the popularity of pool throughout the Kingdom, the outcome exceeded all expectations.
Starting from a clean slate, the entire competition format was revised in order to attract more players and increase the competitivity featuring an accrued difficulty level with longer races as well as an eliminatory group stage to get to the last 32 round.
Sponsored by Thailand Pool Tables, the event saw a massive upgrade in terms of equipments bringing in Diamond & Rasson Pool Tables which are used in most major professional tournaments including the US Open, Mosconi Cup, World Pool Masters and many others. This outstanding setup took place in a completely different venue for the very first time, Show DC Bangkok, since the creation of the tournament and the feedback was positive from both players and spectators.
Both the men and women field saw players from all over the country joining the event, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya.., although the main attraction remained former Snooker World Rank No.3 James Wattana along with Tanut Makkamontree whom had represented Thailand at the World Cup of Pool in the past, it was a very competitive field with a lot of young talents including former National 9 Ball champion Phaa Hmaunpao, a member of the Predator Cues pro team. Local celebrity Art Phsut, a pool enthusiast, was also present as a spectator and took the time to take pictures with the fans and hit a few shots.
After six days of fierce competition, the women as well as the men's finals took place on Sunday, February 23rd 2020 and saw Phaa battling Nam for a second title on the women side and Tanes vs Preecha both of whom chasing their first National Championship win.
The women's final offered a good thrill and turn of events as Nam wasted no time in showing why she was present at this stage of the competition, with an explosive start she quickly had a convincing lead at 4-1 and had Phaa on the ropes halfway through the match. After yet another unforced error, Phaa got punished once again and found herself in a similar situation than in the semi final from which she came out victorious. After trailing 5 racks to 3, Phaa put on another gear and never looked back to claim her 2nd National Championship with a 10 - 5 win.
The men's final saw one of the competition's favorite to win it all, Preecha, taking on Tanes. Runner up last year, Preecha was determined to claim the crown but a poor start with too many positioning errors had Tanes capitalizing on every mistakes made by his opponent and put Preecha in deep waters early in the match with a surprising one sided score 5 -1 for Tanes. Preecha made a nice recovery to get back in the match but it was too late as Tanes managed to seal the deal at the first available opportunity winning 11 racks to 6 and clenching his first national major title.
The event had an international reach via the high quality live streaming which had thousands following the matches thanks to the help of all the industry's sponsors including the Billiard Sports Association of Thailand, Predator Cues, Taom Billiards, Aramith Balls, and Simonis Cloth. The success of this edition paves the way for great events to look forward to in the future, promising...
