Scottish Open 2022: Gary Wilson powers into final with impressive win over Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
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Updated 03/12/2022 at 16:15 GMT
Gary Wilson's shock run at the Scottish Open continued, as he beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh to reach the final in Edinburgh with an impressive performance. Stream the Scottish Open and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch Seventh Heaven, a two-part show about Ronnie O’Sullivan’s historic World Championship win last season, on demand now.
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Gary Wilson produced a power-packed finish the get the better of a ding-dong battle with Thephaiya Un-Nooh 6-4 to secure a place in the Scottish Open final.
A day on from what he described as a "disgusting" performance in his win over Kyren Wilson, Wilson produced the sort of snooker that propelled him into the top 20 in the world three years ago.
Wilson’s form fell off a cliff for a couple of years, aside from a shock run to the final of the British Open in the summer of 2021, but he is back within one match of a first career title after stopping the impressive run of Thepchaiya.
Wilson and Thepchaiya traded the opening four frames, with the latter missing out on a possible 147 in the one before the interval when running out of position when attempting to get on the final red.
The man from Wallsend said following his quarter-final win that he was struggling when presented with difficult chances, but he was extremely fluent in making 88 in the frame upon the resumption.
There were nerves in the sixth frame, with both missing chances. It was a little early for winning-line nerves to kick in, but it highlighted the importance of a match to two players who had been regulars in the top 20 in the world only to drop down the rankings.
Thepchaiya needed a couple of bites, but took the sixth to level the contest once again after Wilson passed up a decent chance to counter.
Wilson hit back to take the seventh with a century, the 37-year-old striding round the table with a swagger and hitting the middle of the pocket with most of his pots, aside from a pink to right middle that wiped its feet before dropping.
Despite being unhappy with his level of performance in his quarter-final win, Wilson said he still had the ability to scrap out results and had belief in his ability to grind things out.
He ground it out early on against Thepchaiya, but went through the gears after the interval at the Meadowbank Sports Centre.
He followed up the 122 in frame seven with an impressive run of 130 to get within one frame of victory.
After taking the sixth frame, Thepchaiya had to sit and watch Wilson reel off two centuries.
His chance looked over as Wilson got in first in the ninth and got to within two balls of victory, but he fell awkward with his break on 64 and missed a tough red to the left middle.
Thepchaiya, who produced the best play of anyone aside from Neil Robertson in getting to the semi-finals, climbed out of his chair and produced a classy clearance of 68 to keep his hopes alive.
The Thai crunched in a glorious red at the start of the 10th frame, and a tough black crafted a chance.
He fell slightly awkwardly when on 24, and required the swan neck to get to a red. It would have been a tough shot in practice, let alone to keep his hopes of reaching the final alive.
His hopes and his head fell when he totally miscued, and Wilson climbed from his seat to knock in a 115 to secure his place in Sunday's final, with Neil Robertson or Joe O'Connor to come.
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Stream the Scottish Open and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch Seventh Heaven, a two-part show about Ronnie O’Sullivan’s historic World Championship win last season, on demand now.
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