Thepchaiya Un-Nooh beats Ronnie O’Sullivan to win World Open title

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh produced a barnstorming performance that included a 147 break to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-7 and win the 2026 World Open in Yushan.

An entertaining encounter ebbed one way and the other as both players played their part in one of the best matches of the season.

Victory for Un-Nooh represents the biggest of his professional career, and the £175,000 champion’s cheque ensures that he will qualify for the upcoming Tour Championship through the one-year rankings.

It wasn’t always apparent that this was going to be the outcome, but by the end of the day there wasn’t much that O’Sullivan could do to prevent it from happening.

The final began as many had predicted with Un-Nooh showing clear signs of nerves and O’Sullivan duly dominating the opening exchanges.

A break of 73 saw the Englishman take the opening frame, and he subsequently took advantage of errors from his opponent either side of compiling the game’s first century break to make it 4-0 at the mid-session interval.

There were already fears that the showdown could turn out to be a runaway, much in the same manner as when the pair last crossed paths over the best of 19 frames.

That was a 10-1 demolition job at the 2020 World Snooker Championship, where O’Sullivan thrashed Un-Nooh at the Crucible Theatre in a mere 108 minutes.

But the contest took a dramatic and unexpected turn after the resumption and for the remainder of play for the first session.

Un-Nooh got himself on the scoreboard with a break of 83 in the fifth frame, and that seemed to settled his nerves as he developed a foothold on proceedings.

As he drew closer and closer, it was becoming more apparent that his confidence was growing, and in turn that O’Sullivan’s patience was waning.

The run of the ball definitely began to favour Un-Nooh, and the 2019 World Open runner-up seized his opportunity to incredibly forge 5-4 in front by the end of the afternoon.

When the 40 year-old later pinched the first frame of the evening session on the black to establish a two-frame cushion, an upset was very much on the cards.

However, while O’Sullivan and Un-Nooh’s respective levels of natural talent may be comparable, their pedigrees for the big occasion could hardly be any different.

Un-Nooh, nicknamed F1 for his fast and unpredictable style around the table, was bidding for his second career ranking crown and a first under a tradition format following his success at the 2019 Snooker Shoot Out.

O’Sullivan, meanwhile, was featuring in a 66th ranking event final of a career glittered with a host of major honours and accolades.

That volume of experience was suddenly evident, with the seven-time world champion punishing a series of missed pots from his opponent to win three frames on the spin with quick-fire breaks of 114, 102, and 136.

To Un-Nooh’s enormous credit, the former six red world champion recovered in spectacular fashion after the concluding mid-session interval to once again restore parity, leaving the final delicately poised at seven frames apiece.

A wonderfully rapid contribution of 132 then saw Un-Nooh retake the lead, but the standard reached even loftier heights as he constructed the incredible maximum break to move to within the brink of glory.

It brought about an unusual situation whereby Un-Nooh doesn’t even earn the high-break prize, as that goes to O’Sullivan for his record-breaking 153 from earlier in the competition.

But there was no stopping the former world no.15 in his pursuit of the main prize and the 2026 World Open trophy.

In the zone and with only victory in his mind, Un-Nooh quickly got in again in the 17th frame and made a third ton on the trot to emerge triumphantly to huge acclaim from the big crowd.

Featured photo credit: WST