Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
NATIONAL cueist Ahmad Taufiq Murni made it a WNT (World 9-Ball Tour) debut to remember as he finished in the top-16 the Hanoi Open 9-Pool Championship.
His run came to an end in the 256-top tier players competition after falling to Filipino Michael Angelo Feliciano 10-7 on Saturday.
Taufiq's efforts at the Vietnam National Sports Complex will see his take home a cash prize of USD $4,000.
The 35-year-old had won three matches in Stage 1 to see him enter the knockout stages.
He began his campaign with a 9-3 win over Hong Kong's Royston Chow on Wednesday.
Taufiq then defeated Vietnam's Nguyen Anh Quang 9-3 in the second match.
He advanced following a 9-7 triumph over another Vietnamese Phuong Nam Pham the next day to move into the last-64.
Brunei's top cueist continued his good form with a 10-4 victory over Greece's Antonios Kakakis.
He then capped off a famous 10-8 victory over former German world champion Thorsten Hohmann in the last-32.
Both were deadlocked at 8-8 before the Bruneian took the last two frames.
"I'm very happy (with my performance) because I never expected to go this far in the competition," said Taufiq in an interview with BruSports News.
"It has been a long time since I last played at this kind of world level tournament an. considering this is my very first WNT event.
"And also being able to win against a former world champion is definitely an achievement for me," he added.
The national cueist concluded by thanking his sponsors HiTunes and Lagenda for making this outing possible.
Next on the calendar for Taufiq is the Permaisuri Imperial City Mall 9-ball Championship in Miri, which he will be looking to defend his crown.
"I have no comments (about defending the title) as I just look to play my game and get into as many tournaments as possible," said Taufiq.
Meanwhile, Md Riyyat Iman and Muhd Qusyairi Zainuddin were the other two Bruneians that contested in Vietnam.
Neither made it into knockout stages.
The former came close after registering two wins but fell to Kakakis 9-5 on the last hurdle.
Qusyairi picked up one win in three matches during the qualifying rounds.
National cue sports coach Lim Tat Hwe chimed in his thoughts for this outing.
"Players need continuous participation in these bigs event in order to get use to the environment and the table conditions which is still very new to our players," he concluded.
