SNOOKERS from Thailand

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Thai Snookers of all time. This list of famous Thai Snookers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. James Wattana (b. 1970)

With an HPI of 35.83, James Wattana is the most famous Thai Snooker.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages on wikipedia.

James Wattana (Thai: เจมส์ วัฒนา; born January 17, 1970, as วัฒนา ภู่โอบอ้อม Wattana Pu-Ob-Orm, then renamed รัชพล ภู่โอบอ้อม Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm in 2003) is a Thai former professional snooker player. A professional between 1989 and 2008, and from 2009 to 2020, Wattana reached his highest ranking position – world number 3 – for the 1994–95 season. He has won three ranking tournaments, the 1992 Strachan Open and the Thailand Open in 1994 and 1995, and has finished as the runner-up in a further five ranking events. He twice reached the semi-finals of the World Snooker Championship, in 1993 and 1997. When he was defeated in the semi-finals in 1993 by Jimmy White, it was only Wattana's second appearance in the final televised stages at the Crucible Theatre, his first being the previous year when he lost in the second round to the eventual winner Stephen Hendry. Having received two year invitational tour cards in 2014, 2016 and 2018, Wattana fell off the main tour at the end of the 2019/2020 season. Back in Thailand, Wattana is known as "Tong Sit Choi" (Thai: ต๋อง ศิษย์ฉ่อย, roughly "Tong, Disciple of Choi") a nickname which he got by winning a local youth tournament at the age of 14. "Choi" is from "Choi Susas" (Thai: ฉ่อย ซู่ซ่าส์), the nickname of Wattana's father and mentor Kowin Pu-Ob-Orm.

2. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (b. 1985)

With an HPI of 27.60, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is the 2nd most famous Thai Snooker.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Thai: เทพไชยา อุ่นหนู, RTGS: Thepchaiya Unnu; born 18 April 1985) is a Thai professional snooker player. He has won one ranking event, the 2019 Snooker Shoot Out, and finished as runner-up in the 2019 World Open. He is regarded as one of the fastest snooker players on the World Tour, averaging less than 17 seconds per shot during the 2017–18 and the 2019–20 snooker seasons.