Congratulations to James Wattana (or Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm) who has today captured the Asian Championship title for the third time in his career and in the process become eligible for a return to the main tour should he choose to accept it…
Having defeated Hong Kong’s Au Chi Wai 6-4 in yesterday’s semi-final, James managed to complete the job today by coming through to defeat Mei Xiwen by a 7-3 scoreline. This means that of James’ four appearances in the competition, he has now won the title three times (1985, 1987 and 2009) and finished as the runner-up once in 1986.
The question now however is will he accept his place on the main tour again following his relegation just a year ago? As a professional snooker player you would expect so, but then he would have to move back to the UK in order to compete at Prestatyn and at his age (39), he may prefer to stay closer to home and compete on the amateur circuit.
As soon as I hear anything I’ll let you know…