There were some major upsets at the Montien Riverside Hotel and that was expected, but the reigning world champion John Higgins would go down to an unsung Pakistan cueist was never on the cards.
First Higgins arrived late for the match and was penalized three frames for it, and then he sat in his corner and saw Mohammed Sajjad complete the unexpected by potting his way to the next two frames to complete a 3-0 rout.
The upshot spelled out the entire concept of 6-red snooker in the simplest possible way: That even a world professional champion is susceptible to upsets at the hands of an unranked amateur player.
Asif was so dominant in the fourth and fifth frames that he only allowed Higgins to score one point, which in fact turned to be his only pot of the match.
Another former world professional champion tasting an unexpected loss was Mark J. Williams, who went down to Dave Harold 5-2 in the first session on the opening day.
There was more drama on the day with the victim of the first episode being the local snooker icon Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm.
Ratchapol had found himself in an exactly opposite situation to that of Higgins. In his case, it was it was his rival Aditya Mehta of India who turned up late and was penalized three frames.
However, Mehta, the 2008 Asian runner-up, did not bother to look at the scoreboard, won five of the remaining six frames to register an amazing 5-4 victory over the Thai star.
Mehta said: “I was angry with myself for being late for the match, and that anger somehow brought out the best in me.
“Being 3-0 down was not disturbing for me because I have been in such situations many times in my career. There was a big crowd at the venue with most of eyes glued to our match table and simply wanted to impress them.”
Overall, it was not an encouraging day for the Thai exponents.
Noppadol Sangnil, who captured the national 6-red title only a couple of weeks ago, was handed a 5-2 defeat by former Welsh professional Darren Morgan.
The 2007 world amateur champion Atthasit Mahitthi was beaten 5-2 by world No. 16 Mark King and Noppadon Noppachorn was edged 5-4 by Matthew Stevens. Supoj Saenla also suffered a 5-3 loss to former world professional champion Ken Doherty.
Phaithoon Phonbun swept away some gloom by beating Mohammed Al Joakar of the United Arab Emirates 5-2 and later reigning world amateur champion Thepchaiya Un-nooh beat Mohsen Aziz of Qatar 5-3.
The first round matches continue at the same venue, with the first session commencing at 10 am. True Sports 3 will televise three matches live from 3 pm onwards. |
