Supoj, a former Asian champion, got the better of Somchai Kaosamran in the first quarter-final at the Klang Plaza on July 22, winning the battle 4-2 to make it to the semifinals.
Noppadol was more dominant in the 4-0 whitewash of Songkiert Raybankoh later in the day.
Supoj (pictured above) raced to a 2-0 lead but Somchai came back to the tie the score. There was no doubting that Supoj would eventually win the match and he did not waste much time to capture the two more frames he needed.
Noppadol, better known for his safety, continued to convince the local fans that he is capable of scoring at will as well.
He scored breaks of 54, 55 and 84 to leave nothing to chance against Songkiert on July 22.
Earlier on July 20, he had scored breaks of 116 and 130 -- the highest of the tournament so far -- to upstage world No. 37 Stuart Pettman of England in the last 16 round.
Issara Kachaiwong staged a miraculous recovery as he recovered from the brink of defeat to edge veteran veteran Praprut Chaithanasakun 4-3.
After he had come back from 3-1 dow, Issara needed 53 points with only as many points available on the table in the final frame and he potted them all to register to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
On July 21 night, Praprut had been in a brilliant form to edge Chinese wildcard Yu Delu 4-3 on the final black of the match to enter the quarter-finals.
Praprut had been staring at elimination after runs of 113 and 68 had given Yu Delu a comfortable 3-1 lead. Praprut recovered with the a help of a spell-binding clearance of 118 points in the fifth and then went on to grab two more frames in a row to send his young Chinese rival packing. |
