Thepchaiya Un-Nooh lives up to Stephen Hendry's Ronnie O'Sullivan comparison with record-breaking speed show at Championship League

The term "blink and you'll miss him" is usually trotted out by the MC before snooker GOAT Ronnie O'Sullivan takes to the table on the World Snooker Tour, but it could easily by applied to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh at the Championship League in Leicester. The Thai speed merchant was undefeated in topping Group 31 with his average shot time of 16 seconds among the fastest of all time at the ranking event.

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Thepchaiya Un-Nooh justified Stephen Hendry's recent hype as the Scot's favourite player to watch on planet snooker by blitzing Martin O'Donnell 3-0 in the Group 31 decider at the Championship League at Leicester's Mattioli Arena.

Un-Nooh rolled in rapid breaks of 98, 76 and 74 in a tremendous display of positional play - achieved with a record average shot time of only 16 seconds - to advance to the last 32.

The Thai speed merchant began with another 3-0 win over 12-time women's world champion Reanne Evans - with breaks of 96 and 52 - before hitting 79 and 71 in a 2-2 draw with Gao Yang to remain unbeaten, topping the section by a point ahead of former Welsh Open finalist O'Donnell.

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Meanwhile, rookie Liu Wenwei enjoyed wins over Jordan Brown (3-0) and last year's runner-up Jackson Page (3-1) before earning a 2-2 draw with Zach Richardson, who had replaced Jimmy White in the competition, to win Group 24 on seven points.

Un-Nooh and O'Sullivan are widely regarded as the two fastest players in the world with former Shoot Out winner Un-Nooh enjoying an average shot time of 17.1 seconds over 206 matches with O'Sullivan posted at 17.4 over 291 matches.

Hendry feels the former World Open finalist is the only player who could challenge seven-time world champion O'Sullivan's historic and ground-breaking 28-year-old world record 147 of five minutes and eight seconds in the first round of the 1997 World Championship.

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh impressed at the Championship League on Tuesday

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"If anybody was going to get close to Ronnie's 147 in five minutes, Thepchaiya would be the man to do it," said Hendry.

"He loves making a 147. Incredible talent, incredible speed, incredible player.

"Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is my favourite player to watch. What a talent, an unbelievable talent.

"He beat me 6-1 in the [2021] UK Championship qualifiers. He had five centuries and I don't think any of them took over seven or eight minutes."

With 28 places in the last 32 of the season's first ranking event now finalized, Crucible qualifiers Chris Wakelin and Joe O'Connor are in action on the penultimate day of the first group phase on Wednesday.

The Championship League runs between June 30 and July 23, with 32 groups of four producing 32 winners, who are then split into eight groups of four.

Two final groups of four will determine who contests the final on July 23, with the winner earning £33,000 and a place in the Champion of Champions event in Leicester in November.

Championship League group winners

Group 15: Stephen Maguire (Sco)
Group 26: Yao Pengcheng (Chn)
Group 3: Alfie Burden (Eng)
Group 22: Matthew Selt (Eng)
Group 25: Matthew Stevens (Wal)
Group 18: Yuan Sijun (Chn)
Group 28: Ricky Walden (Eng)
Group 9: Wu Yize (Chn)
Group 2: Zhang Anda (Chn)
Group 32: Ng On Yee (HK)
Group 11: Stuart Bingham (Eng)
Group 17: Elliot Slessor (Eng)
Group 6: Liam Davies (Wal)
Group 7: Amir Sarkhosh (Irn)
Group 13: Jack Lisowski (Eng)
Group 14: Pang Junxu (Chn)
Group 12: David Gilbert (Eng)
Group 19: Lei Peifan (Chn)
Group 10: Ben Mertens (Bel)
Group 23: Sam Craigie (Eng)
Group 21: Liu Hongyu (Chn)
Group 8: Tom Ford (Eng)
Group 4: Artemijs Zizins (Lat)
Group 30: Robbie Williams (Eng)
Group 1: Hayden Pinhey (Eng)
Group 20: David Lilley (Eng)
Group 31: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Tha)
Group 24: Liu Wenwei (Chn)

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