The year 2010 is getting to its end as each day passes by. It was undoubtedly a year full of exceptional snooker and a bit of drama. The year has seen many glorifying moments on the snooker table.
Some of the exceptional moments or the top ten exceptional moments to be precise, are being covered in this article.
10. TNT from Thailand
After the backsliding of James Wattana in the decade of 90’s, millions of snooker fanatics in Thailand were searching for their new snooker icon. According to some snooker experts Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, has the skills and potential to replace James Wattana
and meet or even exceed the expectations of the Thai snooker fans.
The Thai cueist nick-named “Thai-Namite” has put his professional career off to a perfect start. The 17-years-old Thai dynamite has qualified for the final stages of ‘German masters’ after defeating Patrick Wallace, Alfie Burden, and Barry Hawkins.
He booked his place in his first professional ranking event by producing marvelous snooker in the qualifying rounds. Thanawat has also become the youngest ever snooker player to score a maximum break of 147 at the age of sixteen.
Snooker fanatics in Thailand are hoping for their fellow country man to keep up with the success and come forth as another James for the country.
09. Shaun Murphy rising to the occasion
Star of the East Ding Junhui is one of the most famous sportsmen in China; world number-4 chinese cueist is by all means able to defeat any snooker player out there. The chinese city of Wuxi is Ding’s home town as well as host city of the Rundili Wuxi classic
tournament.
The tournament is a professional non-ranking tournament held every year. This year however the finalists of the tournament were Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy.
It was Ding all over the place with great local support and his destructive skills and talent, leading the match with the score-line of 8-2 every one expected Ding to wrap up a great victory any time soon. However the 28-years-old English cueist turned the
tides in his favor.
Launching an astounding fight back, Murphy came with classy breaks of 78, 92, 59, 58, 96 and 86. Ding was completely destroyed, as he just scored 17 points in seven consecutive frames.
Leaving Ding’s supporters stunned in a state of disbelief, Murphy grabbed the titles with a 9-8 win.
‘It has got to be one of my best three wins ever’, said Murphy in a post match conference.
08. Mark Williams; Bring me to life
After being in years of out-of-town form, Williams seems to be coming back in the shape. All the snooker fanatics are aware of the fact that Williams is capable of playing marvelous snooker and beating any of the snooker players around.
In recent years his career has been slow and steady, but luck is seemed to be turning around for the Welshman.
Shaun Murphy and Mark Williams met each other in the semi-final of the UK championship, and put up a great match for the snooker fans.
During the early stage of the match Mark was in complete control, as he led the match with a score-line of 6-3. However the English cueist known for his fight backs indeed fought back with glistening breaks of 81, 129, 107 and 73 cumulating an astonishing
score of 517.
Many people thought that it was the end for the Welshman, as Mark didn’t pot a single ball while Murphy went potting frenzy on the table.
Mark somehow managed to win the fifteenth frame and all of a sudden the tides of time seemed to have favored Mark, as he scored an affirmative break of 55 to level the match with an 8-8 score-line.
In the decisive frame Mark came up with some of the most thrilling pots of the season and cleared up the frame. Proceeding into the final of the championship, where he narrowly lost to John Higgins, Welshman declared the semi-final as “one h**l of a match”.
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