Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Stuns O'Sullivan With 147 to Claim World Open Glory
Un-Nooh Delivers Career-Defining Performance in Yushan
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh has won the 2026 World Open in Yushan, beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 10-7 in a final that will be talked about for years. The Thai potter — known as F1 for his breathtaking speed and unpredictability around the table — produced one of the performances of his career, including a maximum 147 break, to claim the biggest title of his professional life and bank a £175,000 champion's cheque. It is Un-Nooh's second career ranking event victory, and the prize money guarantees him a spot in the upcoming Tour Championship via the one-year rankings list.
O'Sullivan Flew Out of the Blocks — Then the Script Flipped
If you'd laid Un-Nooh at the mid-session interval, you wouldn't have felt silly about it. O'Sullivan was simply imperious in the opening exchanges, breaking 73 to take the first frame and then compiling a century to help himself to a commanding 4-0 lead before the first session break. Those early signs pointed toward a repeat of the pair's most recent best-of-19 meeting — a brutal 10-1 hammering O'Sullivan handed Un-Nooh at the 2020 World Snooker Championship at the Crucible, completed in just 108 minutes. The result that day was ruthless and clinical. For a time, it looked like we might be watching the sequel.
But snooker has a habit of confounding expectations, and what happened after the interval was remarkable. Un-Nooh got on the board with a composed break of 83 in the fifth frame, and you could almost see his shoulders drop from tense to relaxed in real time. He began to grow into the match, winning frames in clusters and feeding off momentum as O'Sullivan's patience visibly shortened. By the end of the afternoon session, the F1 man had gone from 4-0 down to leading 5-4 — an extraordinary turnaround by any measure. When he then took the first frame of the evening session on the black to move two clear, the upset was firmly on.
Pressure, Pedigree — and a Perfect 147
There's no question that O'Sullivan's pedigree on the big occasion dwarfs Un-Nooh's. The Rocket has lifted more ranking trophies than most players have quarter-final appearances, and you would always expect him to find something when his back is against the wall. For stretches of the evening session, he did exactly that — there were moments when it felt like he might haul himself back into contention. But Un-Nooh refused to buckle. His 147 break — the crowning moment of his finest display in professional snooker — was the kind of shot-making that silences a room and changes a match's atmosphere entirely. It underlined that this wasn't a day where O'Sullivan lost; it was a day where Un-Nooh genuinely won.
The final scoreline of 10-7 is a fair reflection of a contest that ebbed and flowed throughout — one of the most entertaining finals of the season. Un-Nooh, who was runner-up at this very event back in 2019, has now gone one better in Yushan and done so against one of the greatest players the sport has ever produced. At 40 years of age, O'Sullivan remains capable of winning any tournament he enters, and he will no doubt be back. But on this occasion, the better player on the day took the title — and Thai snooker has every right to celebrate one of its finest ever results on the world stage.
What This Means Going Forward
The £175,000 first prize will make a significant difference to Un-Nooh's ranking position on the one-year list, with Tour Championship qualification now secured. For a player whose explosive style has always promised more ranking success than he has delivered, this could be the moment that acts as a springboard. Whether or not he can maintain the consistency needed to challenge regularly at the top end of the draw remains to be seen — but nobody can take this away from him. A maximum break and a World Open title in the same final, against Ronnie O'Sullivan? That's the stuff of snooker folklore.
Please gamble responsibly. If you're concerned about your gambling, visit BeGambleAware.org or call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133.
