In another quarter-final, Noppadon Noppadon took more than two hours, 50 minutes to defeat Chuchart Trairattanapradit 4-1 make it to the semifinals at the 4,000-seat Gymnasium of the Nakhon Sawan Provincial Stadium.
Noppadon meets Atthasit Mahitthi, who defeated English world No. 29 Nigel Bond late on June 10. Bond (pictured above) had a century break during the match but it failed to stop Atthasit from marching into the semifinals.
Both Supoj, an instant hit with the large army of local snooker fans, and Issara traded punches throughout the match.
Issara set the pace with a riveting break of 100 points in the opening frame to gain an edge on his opponent. However, Supoj was not be denied his claim to the limelight and he responded with 78-point run in the next to even the score.
Another crucial break of 48 in the third saw Supoj overtake Issara to go one frame up.
Supoj once again displayed his potting skills to score 68 points in a go, but Issara, also a former Asian champion, hit back with a clearance of 33 points to steal the frame and even the frame score 2-2.
The see-sawing battle continued with Supoj grabbing the low-scoring fifth frame only to see Issara come back into the game once again by capturing the sixth frame with the help of a break of 82 points.
In the deciding things did not turn out the way Issara would have liked and all Supoj needed was a run of 47 points on fifth trip to the table to take frame and assure himself a place in the semifinals.
Supoj next takes on the winner of last night's quarter-final encounter between Thepchaiya Un-nooh and Phaithoon Phonbun.
Both the semifinals on June 11 will be played at the same venue with the first match starting at 1:30 pm.
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