Caption: Ahmad Taufiq Murni (L) receiving his prize. Picture: Courtesy of Lim Tat Hwe
Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
NATIONAL cueist Ahmad Taufiq Murni put up a fantastic run at the 8th Golden Break 9-Ball Open Championship 2017 in Malaysia after making it into the semi-finals of the July 6-15 tournament.
The result is the best he has managed at the annual competition having never made it past the Round of 32.
The 28-year-old had started his Group F campaign on the wrong foot losing 7-6 to Singapore’s Aaron Koh in the preliminary round on Tuesday sending him to the loser’s bracket.
He bounced back with a 7-6 win over Malaysia’s Darryl Chia before dispatching Singapore’s Fraser Leow 7-4.
Taufiq then got his revenge on Koh beating him 7-3 to progress into the top-32.
He continued his good form and advanced to the last-16 after taking down 2012 World Junior Champion Liu Zheng Jie of Chinese-Taipei 9-7 on Thursday.
He then made easy work of Indonesia’s Iwan 9-2 and progressed into the semi-finals with a 11-9 triumph over Filipino Ryan Mark the next day.
However, he was stopped in his tracks by World No 45 and eventual champion Aloysius Yapp of Singapore 11-8 yesterday to see him finish joint-third.
The Singaporean then went on to dethrone World No 3 Ko Pin Yi of Chinese Taipei with a 13-12 comeback victory to claim the crown.
Meanwhile, Md Azim Hj Abu Bakar was the other Bruneian who competed from the preliminary round and started out his Group A campaign with a 7-6 defeat at the hands of Kenichi Udigaki.
He then defeated Malaysia’s Bali Treman 7-4 in the loser’s bracket but was knocked out 7-2 by Do Hoang Quan of Vietnam.
