Mark Williams and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh will contest the Six Red World Championship final after respective 7-3 semi-final victories on Friday.
Williams overcame Marco Fu in the opening last four contest, establishing 3-0 and 6-1 cushions as he dominated the affair from the outset.
Fu had come from 5-2 down to deny Graeme Dott in a decider on Thursday and briefly threatened another revival when he pulled back a couple of frames to make it 6-3, but Williams wasn’t really troubled and duly booked his place in the final for the first time.
The home crowd in Thailand had plenty to cheer in the evening session as their favourite entertained Anthony McGill in the second semi-final clash.
Un-Nooh began brightly with a speedy 71 break offering him the first frame, but McGill won the next two to briefly establish an advantage.
A second 71 brought the Thai level and, to the delight of the crowd, the 32 year-old went on a five-frame winning run to open up a 6-2 lead.
McGill held on a frame longer but couldn’t prevent the inevitable as the 2015 champion booked a spot in the final for the second time in the three years.
Un-Nooh has endured a difficult year on the Main Tour and will be hoping that this tournament will help spearhead a turnaround in his fortunes akin to how his success in Bangkok two years ago inspired his surge into the top 32 in the world rankings.
There are no ranking points on offer for this invitational event of course, which sees the format reduced from the traditional 15 reds to just six, but with over £80,000 at stake for the champion there is still plenty of prestige to play for and confidence will be soaring for either player if they can get their hands on the silverware.
For Williams, a triumph on Saturday would represent a third different world crown under his belt, after claiming a brace of Crucible titles and the World Seniors a couple of campaigns ago as well.
Williams clearly enjoys playing in Thailand having previously lifted a hat-trick of Thailand Masters trophies earlier in his career.
The 42 year-old boasts the superior head-to-head record against Un-Nooh, with four wins from their six previous meetings with one another.
Funnily enough, they’ve met twice in this very competition with Williams coming out on top on each occasion during the 2013 and 2015 editions.
In the latter round-robin fixture, the result didn’t matter all that much as Un-Nooh progressed to record his career-defining moment and he’ll be hoping he can repeat the trick in front of his legion of fans this weekend in Bangkok.
The showdown will be played over the best of 15 frames, with coverage of the final provided on the Eurosport Player.
