While the Welsh Open are underway, I continue my little series with a focus on snooker players from Asia, aside from the "big ones" - will say: China and Thailand. Well at least its the first part for Asia. As there are a couple of countries I have to mention, we start with the letters A-L today. M-Z will follow in the next issue
Bahrain
Bahrain - in the context of snooker - is probably best known for the Bahrain Championship, which took place as a full ranking tournament in 2008. Its date collided with the Barry Hearns Premier League, so some top players were missing the tournament, because they had contracts with Matchroom for playing PL.
But this blog shall be about players and there is a notable one of Bahrain: Habib Subah played on the Main Tour in 2005/06, but without any win at all. His best performance was a narrow 4:5 loss to Nick Dyson. One year before his main tour year he was a wildcard player at the China Open, winning against Jimmy Michie 5:3, before losing to Stephen Lee at the L32 round. He also played at the already mentioned Bahrain Championship 2008 as a wildcard player and at the 2010 World Open but without any further wins. At the 2010 Asian Championship he reached the quarterfinal, before losing to Thanawat Tirapaipongboon of Thailand.
Cyprus
Yes it belongs to Asia, at least geographically. And with Mehmet Husnu there is one name representing the colours of the island in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, that wont be forgotten for a special reason: He played the 24th professional Maximum Break in snooker history in 1998 at the qualifiers for the China International.
While he never climbed higher than #93 in the world rankings, he also reached the final of the 2002 Benson and Hedges Championship (Masters qualifying tournament). On his road to the final he eliminated players like Ricky Walden, Mike Dunn, Gerard Greene and Nigel Bond. In the final he lost to Mark Davis 9:6.
In the 2010 European Championships Antony Brabin of Cyprus reached the Last 16 round.
Hong Kong
Hong Kongs most successful snooker player is without any doubt Marco Fu, but he is famous enough, so I wont have to focus on him here. Grand Prix winner, #8 in the world rankings and world championship semifinalist. Enough said.
But when we go back a little into history, we find a guy named Franky Chan, who was a successful professional at the begin of the 90s. He was ranked #42 in the world in 1992/93. Sadly I found no further details about his career, but he dropped off the Top 128 in 1995.
Maybe a little more known because of the World Cup 2011 is Fung Kwok Wai. He played together with Marco Fu, when Hong Kong reached the halffinals with a surprise win over England (represented by Mark Selby and Ali Carter) in the quarterfinals. He is a IBSF World Champiosnhip quarterfinalist in 2006 and an Asian Games winner in Team competition in 2002, followed by a silver medal in 2006 at the same event.
Beside those, there is Alan Lin Tang Ho, who played PIOS in 2007/08 and reached the Last 16 after 3 wins in PIOS #5 2007 as his best result.
India
India is a booming snooker nation with two current main tour players. There were rumours about a ranking tournament there too, but there is no confirmation to that yet.
The two mentioned players are Lucky Vatnani and Aditya Mehta. While Vatnani had visa trouble and couldnt win a single game in 2011, Mehta already showed his talent, reaching the L48 stages at the Shanghai Masters and making his way to the quarterfinals of PTC9 in 2011, beatin players like Ryan Day, Ali Carter and Matthew Stevens in his debut season.
Vatnani however had his first success too meanwhile, winning two games at the Welsh Open 2012 qualifiers. However he will have to leave the Main Tour probably, if he cant requalify.
Beside those two there was Omprakash Agrawal, who was #89 for one year in 1986/87, but he fell off the Top 128 after this one year again. At the World Cup 2011 in Thailand Mehta played together with Pankaj Advani. He won the IBSF World Amateur Championships in 2003 and is a world champion in English Billards as well. He won two gold medals at the Asian Games in English Billards as well. One more name from the near history I can drop is Manan Chandra. He played on the Main Tour one year in 2002/03. Two wins at the World championship qualifiers were his highlight. He dropped off the tour after this year.
Iran's Hossein Vafaei is definatley worth mentioning as the reigning IBSF world amateur champion (narrow 10:9 win vs. Lee Walker of Wales), and therefore we should probably see him at the main tour next year. He is a very young player (born 1994) and perhaps on of the future stars of the game.
He already appeared as a Wildcard player in the Shanghai Masters 2011, where he was able to steal at least one frame for a 1:5 defeat against Fergal O'Brien.
Soheil Vahedi is another player I found. He finished forth at the World Games 2009, losing to the already mentioned Mohammed Shehab from UAE in the Match for third place. He also beat former main tour player Glen Wilkinson from Australia in the first round.
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