There is no stopping Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn. The diminutive Thai scalped another big fish as he stormed into the final of the 32nd Asian Snooker Championship at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation (QBSF) Academy yesterday.
In the quarter-finals on Thursday, Lertsattayathorn had ousted former IBSF World Champion Mohamed Asif of Pakistan. Yesterday, he did no harm to his growing reputation as the 27-year-old knocked out India’s ace cueist Pankaj Advani in the last four.
Adavni, being the top seed and multiple world champion in both billiards and snooker was heavily favoured to end the title drought at the Asian Championship — where he had finished runner-up on three occasions.
However, Lertsattayathorn had other ideas in an encounter where he frustrated Advani with his tactical ploy. In the best of nine frames match, Lertsattayathorn won 5-3 (86-46, 21-64, 142-00, 00-99, 71-05, 18-99 ,77 28, 66-31), with breaks of 58 and 142 coming in the second and third frames respectively.
The semi-final lasted for four hours with the fifth frame itself lasting for more than an hour. With a match that was matched frame-to-frame till the sixth, Advani lost the first frame to his Thai opponent 46-86 but moved on to pocket the second frame 64-21.
In the third frame, Lertsattayathorn started at the table and scored a century break of 142 winning the frame. However, the fourth frame belonged to Pankaj who won it 99-0 with a break of 94.
Losing the fifth frame, 71-5, in the sixth frame, Pankaj scored a 90 break to win the frame 99-18. Lertsattayathorn won the seventh and eighth frame 77-28 and 66-31 to book his place in the final against UAE’s Mohamed Shehab, who put it easily past Amir Sarkhosh 5-1 in the other semifinal.
Advani, while disappointed at his loss, heaped praise on Lertsattayathorn. “The match didn’t go my way but credit is due to my Thai opponent for the way he played,” the 30-year-old Bangalorean said.
Advani was already looking ahead to the season. “I am looking forward to the next tournament in Abu Dhabi next month and I am glad to have started with the snooker season with a lot more in store,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shehab hardly broke a sweat while winning his semi-final match. The cueist won the first two frames but the lost the third one, before regrouping to win the next three against Sarkhosh.
The final will be held today from 11am and will be a best-of-11 frames affair, with the winner awarded a guaranteed two-year professional tour card by World Snooker.
The champion will take home $3,500 and the runner-up $1,750. The losing semi-finalists will collect $500 each. The organisers also have lined up cash awards for the highest break and maximum break.
The cueman with the highest break (over 100 pts) will pocket $500 and those with maximum break (above 147) is set to go home with $1,750.

Semi-finals results
Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn (Thailand) beat Pankaj Advani (India) 5-3 (86(58)-46, 21-64, 142(142)-00, 00-99(94), 71-05, 18-99(90), 77(62)-28, 66-31)
Mohamed Shehab (UAE) beat Amir Sarkhosh (Iran) 5-1 (93-15, 91-26, 33-101(97), 92-00, 54-43, 101(57)-13)