Dechawat Poomjaeng

Dechawat Poomjaeng

Dechawat Poomjaeng at 2014 German Masters
Born July 11, 1978
Sport country  Thailand
Nickname Mr Poombastic[1]
Professional 2011–
Highest ranking 37 (March–April 2015)[2]
Current ranking 39 (as of 6 April 2015)
Career winnings £121,934[3]
Highest break 147 (2014 German Masters Qualifying)
Century breaks 15[3]
Best ranking finish Last 16 (2013 World Championship, 2015 China Open)
Dechawat Poomjaeng
Medal record
Competitor for  Thailand
Men's Snooker
Asian Games
Bronze 2010 Guangzhou Singles
World Games
Bronze 2013 Cali Singles

Dechawat Poomjaeng (Thai: เดชาวัต พุ่มแจ้ง Dechāwạt Phùmcæ̂ng,[4] born July 11, 1978) is a Thai professional snooker player. He is the number 1 ranked Thai player on the main tour.

Career

Early career

He won the 2010 IBSF World Snooker Championship in Damascus, Syria, defeating India's Pankaj Advani 10–7 in the final.[5] This earned him a place on the professional Main Tour for the 2011/2012 season.[6]

Debut season

Due to being a new player on the tour and therefore unranked he would need to win four qualifying matches to reach the ranking event main draws. He came closest to doing this in the World Open when he beat Andrew Pagett and Liu Song, before losing to Michael Holt 4–5.[7]

Poomjaeng played all 12 of the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events throughout the season, with his best finish coming in Event 8 where he beat seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry and Stephen Maguire to reach the last 16, but succumbed 1–4 to Ben Woollaston.[7] Poomjaeng finished the season ranked world number 82, comfortably outside the top 64 who retain their places for the 2012/2013 season.[8] However, his final placing of 57th on the PTC Order of Merit was good enough to earn him a spot for next season.[9]

2012/2013 season

Dechawat Poomjaeng at 2013 German Masters

The 2012/2013 season saw Poomjaeng qualify for the main draw of a ranking event for the first time. This came in the 2013 German Masters, by defeating Yu Delu and Fergal O'Brien. He lost 2–5 to Barry Hawkins in the first round in Berlin.[10] Poomjaeng continued his form by winning four matches to reach the China Open. Once at the venue in Beijing, he saw off Zhu Yinghui 5–2 in the wildcard round, but then lost 3–5 to Mark Davis in the first round.[10] In the Players Tour Championship events this season Poomjaeng's best results were last 16 defeats in the First and Fourth events, losing to Alan McManus and Mark Joyce respectively.[10] He was ranked 42nd on the PTC Order of Merit.[11] Poomjaeng beat Michael Leslie 10–4, Liu Chuang 10–9, Anthony Hamilton 10–4 and Jamie Cope 10–3 to qualify for the World Championship for the first time.[12] He faced sixth seed Stephen Maguire in the first round and produced a huge shock with the world number 70 Poomjaeng winning 10–9, with a composed 63 break in the final frame. The crowd warmed to Poomjaeng as he walked to the wrong table at the start of play and animatedly expressed his emotions throughout the match, including applauding his own safety shot.[13][14] He played Michael White in the second round and lost the fourth frame without a ball having been potted due to missing the reds three times. The rules of snooker state that if a red can be seen full ball and is missed on three consecutive shots, the frame is conceded.[15] Poomjaeng lost the session 1–7 and went on to be defeated 3–13.[16] His cheque of £16,000 for reaching the last 16 more than doubled his previous career earnings since turning professional in 2011.[17] Poomjaeng finished the season ranked world number 67.[18]

2013/2014 season

Poomjaeng at 2014 German Masters

In his opening match of the season, Poomjaeng defeated Darren Cook 5–1 to qualify for the 2013 Wuxi Classic in China where he beat Dominic Dale 5–1 in the first round, before losing by a reverse of this scoreline to John Higgins.[19] Poomjaeng then won three matches to qualify for the Australian Goldfields Open, but lost 5–1 to Barry Hawkins in the first round.[19] Poomjaeng won the bronze medal at the World Games thanks to a 3–2 victory over Brazil's Igor Figueiredo.[20] He lost in the last 32 of the Indian Open to Liang Wenbo and at the UK Championship, lost 6–0 in the second round to world number four Judd Trump, having defeated fellow Thai player Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6–5 in the opening round.[21] Poomjaeng eliminated defending champion Ali Carter 5–4 in the opening round of the German Masters, after having trailed 4–2, but was then beaten in a deciding frame by Xiao Guodong in the second round.[22] His fourth exit in the last 32 of a ranking event this season came at the China Open as Shaun Murphy whitewashed him 5–0.[23] Poomjaeng saw off Zhang Anda and Craig Steadman to stand one match away from playing in the World Championship for the second year in a row, but from 4–2 ahead he lost eight of the last nine frames against 1997 champion Ken Doherty to miss out.[24] He rose 20 spots to be ranked world number 47 at the end of the season.[25]

2014/2015 season

At the Paul Hunter Classic, Poomjaeng won three matches and then defeated Neil Robertson 4–2 to reach the quarter-finals where he lost 4–2 to Rod Lawler. This result would later help him finish 32nd on the Order of Merit.[26] Poomjaeng's first appearance at a ranking event this season was at the International Championship, but he was beaten 6–2 by Mark Davis in the first round.[27] At the UK Championship he recorded wins over Andrew Norman and Michael Holt, before Marco Fu knocked him out 6–3 in the third round.[28] Fu also eliminated Poomjaeng in the second round of the Welsh Open this time 4–2. Poomjaeng won three frames in a row from 3–1 down against Robertson in the first round of the China Open with the match eventually going into a deciding frame.[29] Poomjaeng took it on the final black and then whitewashed Jack Lisowski 5–0 to play in the last 16 of a ranking event for the only time this season, where he lost 5–1 against Gary Wilson.[30]

Personal life

Poomjaeng is based in the Star Academy in Sheffield and shares a house with four other Thai players, including former world number three and professional since 1989, James Wattana, whom Poomjaeng has described as a big brother.[31] His real elder brother is Suchakree "Kwan" Poomjaeng who has played on the professional snooker tour in the past.[13] He is married to Korawan and has a daughter called Gim Gim.[17]

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 2011/
12 		2012/
13 		2013/
14 		2014/
15
Ranking[32][nb 1] UR[nb 2] 82[nb 3] 67 47
Ranking tournaments
Wuxi Classic NR LQ 2R WD
Australian Goldfields Open LQ LQ 1R WD
Shanghai Masters LQ LQ LQ LQ
International Championship NH LQ LQ 1R
UK Championship LQ LQ 2R 3R
German Masters LQ 1R 2R LQ
Welsh Open WD LQ 2R 2R
Indian Open Not Held 2R 2R
Players Championship Grand Final[nb 4] DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ
China Open A 1R 2R 3R
World Championship LQ 2R LQ LQ
Variant format tournaments
Six-red World Championship NH 1R 1R 2R
Shoot-Out A A 1R 1R
Former ranking tournaments
World Open LQ LQ LQ NH
Performance Table Legend
LQ lost in the qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)		 QF lost in the quarter-finals
SF lost in the semi-finals F lost in the final W won the tournament
DNQ did not qualify for the tournament A did not participate in the tournament WD withdrew from the tournament
NH / Not Held means an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Event means an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Event means an event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Event means an event is/was a minor-ranking event.
  1. ↑ Shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. ↑ New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
  3. ↑ Players qualified through Players Tour Championship Order of Merit started the season without ranking points.
  4. ↑ The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2011/2012–2012/2013)

References

  1. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jydpNgfGBpU
  2. ↑ "World Rankings after the Players Championship 2015" (PDF). worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 30 March 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Career-total Statistics for Dechawat Poomjaeng - Professional". CueTracker Snooker Results & Statistics Database. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ "World Snooker Championship – Damascus, Syria, 4–15 December 2010". International Billiards and Snooker Federation. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  6. ↑ "2011/12 Tour Players". WPBSA. 31 May 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Dechawat Poomjaeng 2011/2012". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  8. ↑ "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  9. ↑ "Order of Merit". Snooker.org. 8 January 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Dechawat Poomjaeng 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Order of Merit 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  12. ↑ "Betfair World Championship". Snooker.org. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Sonic Poom Flattens Maguire". World Snooker. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  14. ↑ "World Snooker Championship 2013: Stephen Maguire out". BBC Sport. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  15. ↑ Skilbeck, John (25 April 2013). "Snooker: Dechawat Poomjaeng has it all to do against Michael White". London: The Independent. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  16. ↑ "World Snooker Championship 2013: White into quarter-finals". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Speck, Ivan (26 April 2013). "Jack the Thai entertained us all, but his Crucible journey is over after defeat to qualifier White". London: Daily Mail. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  18. ↑ "Official World Snooker Ranking List For The 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Dechawat Poomjaeng 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  20. ↑ "Snooker at the World Games". Snooker.org. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  21. ↑ "UK Snooker Championship 2013 results". BBC Sport. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  22. ↑ "Carter Suffers Early Exit In Berlin". World Snooker. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  23. ↑ "China Open: Jimmy White and Peter Ebdon win second-round ties". BBC Sport. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  24. ↑ "Dott / Williams / Stevens Miss Crucible". World Snooker. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  25. ↑ "World Snooker Rankings After the 2014 World Championship" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  26. ↑ "European Order of Merit 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  27. ↑ "Dechawat Poomjaeng 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  28. ↑ "UK Championship: John Higgins advances after convincing victory over Matthew Stevens". Sky Sports. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  29. ↑ "Snooker - Neil Robertson stunned by Dechawat Poomjaeng but Ding Junhui wins". Eurosport. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  30. ↑ "John Higgins beat Judd Trump in China Open". Sky Sports. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  31. ↑ "Quartet Of Debutants Through To Crucible". World Snooker. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  32. ↑ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dechawat Poomjaeng.