Thepchaiya Un-Nooh wins thriller with Hossein Vafaei to reach Six Red World Snooker Championship final

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh battled back from 5-2 and 6-4 behind to edge out Hossein Vafaei 7-6 and reach the Six Red World Championship final in Bangkok. The popular Thai speed merchant had to display fortitude as much as flair in a thrilling semi-final that saw Vafaei miss a tricky pink to the green pocket in the penultimate frame that would have sealed a 7-5 victory.

Ad A day after he punished Judd Trump for missing match ball in the quarter-finals, the snooker balls did not forgive the Iranian professional this time as Un-Nooh duly dominated the decider with a few timely snookers to reach the final for a third time in eight years. Six-Red World ChampionshipWho does O'Sullivan face in last 16 of Six Red World Championship?YESTERDAY AT 17:03 He lifted the title in 2015 with an 8-2 filleting of Liang Wenbo before suffering a similar defeat by the same scoreline to Mark Williams in 2017.

Un-Nooh – who top scored with breaks of 50 and 59 – will have a vociferous crowd behind him when he meets Ding Junhui or Tom Ford over the best-of-15 frames on Saturday (8am UK time) at the Thammasat University Convention Centre in Pathum Thani. He will fancy his chances of joining Mark Davis as the only double winner of the Six Red trophy after trailing a tension-packed semi-final until the final frame.

Vafaei will be wondering how he managed to lose the match after his opponent missed a routine green in the penultimate frame when he seemed certain to force the decider. He slotted the green, brown and blue, but could not find a precise position on the pink before misjudging the angle in narrowly failing to slot to the green pocket.