Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
Paul Hunter Classic 2015
Born (1993-12-14) 14 December 1993
Sport country Thailand
NicknameThai-Namite[1]
Professional2010–2016
Highest ranking67 (September 2012)[2]
Maximum breaks1
Best ranking finishLast 32 (x2)
Medal record
Men's snooker
Representing  Thailand
Southeast Asian Games
Bronze medal – third place 2011 Palembang Doubles

Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon (Thai: ธนวัฒน์ ถิรพงศ์ไพบูลย์ Ṭhnwạtʹhn̒ T̄hirphngṣ̄̒phịbūly̒; born December 14, 1993) is a Thai retired professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2010 as the Asian nomination following his run to the semi-finals of the 2010 Asian Championship. At the age of 17, he was the youngest player competing on the 2010/2011 main tour.

He is also the youngest snooker player to have made an official maximum break in professional competition; he achieved this at the 2010 Rhein–Main Masters aged 16 years and 312 days.

Following an investigation by the sport's governing body, Thirapongpaiboon admitted fixing the outcome of six professional matches between 2013 and 2015. He was suspended unconditionally from 15 June 2022 until 14 March 2025, after which his return to the sport will be conditional on continued assistance with the governing body's anti-corruption work.[3]

Note: Both the professional tour and the sport's governing body spell his name Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon.

Career

2010/2011 season

In his very first professional tournament, the Shanghai Masters Thirapongpaiboon made an impact by beating Justin Astley 5–3, Mark Joyce 5–4 and Nigel Bond 5–1 before losing 4–5 to Mark Davis, just one frame away from reaching the final stages in Shanghai.

Thirapongpaiboon made the 74th official maximum break during his third round match against Barry Hawkins at Euro Players Tour Championship 2010/2011 – Event 3, but lost the match 1–4. With this he became the youngest player ever to make an official maximum break at the age of 16 years and 312 days.[4] Nevertheless, he fell off the tour after one year. In July 2011 he won the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship by defeating Noppon Saengkham 9–3 in the final and in doing so earned a place back on the main snooker tour for the 2012–13 season.[5]

2012/2013 season

Thirapongpaiboon came through three qualifying matches, before losing in the final round in both the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters, losing to Liang Wenbo and in a last frame decide to Jamie Cope respectively.[6] This was the closest he came to reaching the main of a ranking event. He had a very good season in the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events, reaching the quarter-finals in the fifth and sixth European Tour events.[6] In the fifth event he beat compatriot Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Liu Chuang and top 16 player Barry Hawkins, before losing 3–4 to Anthony McGill,[7] and in the sixth event he beat the likes of Fergal O'Brien, Ricky Walden and Liang Wenbo, before being whitewashed 0–4 by Mark Selby.[8] He also reached the last 16 of another event to finish 38th on the PTC Order of Merit.[9] Thirapongpaiboon defeated Jamie O'Neill 10–8 and Mike Dunn 10–6 in World Championship Qualifying, but his season was ended in the next round when he lost 8–10 to Matthew Selt.[10] He finished the year ranked world number 71.[11]

2013/2014 season

After Thirapongpaiboon's 5–0 loss to Ross Muir in the first round of Shanghai Masters qualifiers it was announced by World Snooker that the match was being investigated due to unusual betting patterns.[12] However, the governing body concluded the case in January 2014 finding no link between the player and suspicious betting activity.[13] The only ranking event Thirapongpaiboon qualified for this season was the Indian Open where he beat Lü Haotian 4–1, before losing 4–2 to Stuart Bingham in the second round.[14] Thirapongpaiboon was relegated from the tour at the end of the season as he was ranked world number 87, outside of the top 64 who remain.[15]

In June 2014, he won the ACBS Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship by defeating Siyavosh Mozayani 6–1 in the final and earned a two-year tour card for the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons.[16][17]

2014/2015 season

Thirapongpaiboon did not play his first match of the season until the opening round of the UK Championship, where he was thrashed 6–0 by Stuart Bingham. His first win of the year came courtesy of a 4–0 whitewash over Jimmy Robertson to qualify for the Indian Open, where he lost 4–1 to compatriot Dechawat Poomjaeng in the first round. Thirapongpaiboon's limited season ended with a 10–6 loss to Robertson in the second round of World Championship qualifying after he had seen off Kyren Wilson 10–3 in the first.[18]

2015/2016 season

Thirapongpaiboon once again played a select few events during the 2015–16 season and could only win two matches, which came at the Haining Open. He has not played on the main snooker tour since December 2015 and was relegated from it at the end of the season.[19]

2022/2023 season

Tirapongpaiboon took part in the inaugural edition of the Q School Asia & Oceania event after the conclusion of the 2021-22 snooker season. He entered in Event 1 and reached the semi-finals, where he beat fellow Thai Dechawat Poomjaeng. Despite having been eligible to receive a two-year tour card for doing so, on 22 June 2022, the WPBSA and World Snooker Tour declined to offer him a tour card, citing "serious disciplinary matters from when Thanawat was previously a professional player in 2015" as the reason.[20] On 1 September, 2022 the WPBSA announced they were charging him with fixing the outcome of 6 World Snooker Tour matches between 2013 and 2015.[21]

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournament 2010/
11		 2011/
12		 2012/
13		 2013/
14		 2014/
15		 2015/
16		 2018/
19
Ranking[22][nb 1] [nb 2] [nb 3] [nb 2] 71 [nb 4] 103 [nb 3]
Ranking tournaments
World Open[nb 5] LQ WR LQ LQ Not Held A
International Championship Not Held LQ LQ A LQ A
UK Championship LQ A LQ 1R 1R 1R A
German Masters 1R A LQ LQ LQ LQ A
World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held NR DNQ DNQ
Welsh Open LQ A LQ 1R 1R A A
Indian Open Tournament Not Held 2R 1R NH A
Players Championship[nb 6] DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ A DNQ DNQ
Tour Championship Tournament Not Held DNQ
China Open LQ A LQ LQ LQ A A
World Championship LQ A LQ LQ LQ A A
Non-ranking tournaments
Six-red World Championship RR NH 3R RR RR 2R RR
Former ranking tournaments
Wuxi Classic Non-Ranking LQ LQ A Not Held
Australian Goldfields Open NH A LQ LQ A A NH
Shanghai Masters LQ WR LQ LQ WD LQ NR
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 Heldmeans an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was a minor-ranking event.
  1. ↑ It shows the ranking at the beginning of the season
  2. 1 2 New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking
  3. 1 2 He was an amateur
  4. ↑ Players qualified through ACBS Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship started the season without prize money ranking points
  5. ↑ The event was called the World Open (2010/2011) and the Haikou World Open (2011/2012–2013/2014)
  6. ↑ The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013)

Career finals

Amateur finals: 4 (2 titles)

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Runner-up 1. 2010 Asian Under-21 Championship China Liu Chuang 5–6
Winner 1. 2011 World Under-21 Snooker Championship Thailand Noppon Saengkham 9–3[23]
Winner 2. 2014 Asian Under-21 Championship Iran Siyavosh Mozayani 6–1[24]
Runner-up 2. 2019 Asian Amateur Championship India Pankaj Advani 3–6[25]

References

  1. ↑ "Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon". wst.tv. Archived from the original on 21 April 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  2. ↑ "Issued after the Shanghai Masters 2012" (PDF). World Snooker. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 24 September 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  3. ↑ Ivan (2022-11-18). "WPBSA Statement - Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon". World Snooker. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  4. ↑ "Thai-Namite Blasts Maximum". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  5. ↑ "World Under 21 Snooker Championship 2011". International Billiards and Snooker Federation. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  6. 1 2 "Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  7. ↑ "Betfair European Tour Event Five". Snooker.org. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  8. ↑ "Betfair European Tour Event Six". Snooker.org. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  9. ↑ "Order of Merit 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  10. ↑ "Betfair World Championship Qualifiers". Snooker.org. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Official World Snooker Ranking List For The 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  12. ↑ "Snooker betting probe launched into two Shanghai Masters qualifiers". Metro. 8 August 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  13. ↑ "Snooker betting: Shanghai Masters inquiry closes with no charges". BBC Sport. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  14. ↑ "Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  15. ↑ "Prize Money Rankings After the 2014 World Championship" (PDF). World Snooker. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  16. ↑ "ONGC Asian Championship 2014: 15th Under-21 Snooker". Cue Sports India. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  17. ↑ "Tirapongpaiboon/Ayouri Tour Cards". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 16 June 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  18. ↑ "Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  19. ↑ "Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  20. ↑ "WPBSA Statement - Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon". 22 June 2022.
  21. ↑ "WPBSA STATEMENT: THANAWAT TIRAPONGPAIBOON". WPBSA.com.
  22. ↑ "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  23. ↑ "World Under 21 Snooker Championship 2011". International Billiards and Snooker Federation. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  24. ↑ "ONGC Asian Championship 2014: 15th Under-21 Snooker". Cue Sports India. Archived from the original on 14 June 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  25. ↑ "Pankaj Advani rules Asia by winning Asian Snooker title".
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