Saengkham makes sublime 147 maximum in World Championship qualifying

Noppon Saengkham completed a composed 147 maximum break at the World Championship on Monday to move past Andy Hicks in qualifying.

The Thai player overcame his English counterpart 10-5 to set up a clash with Jackson Page on Wednesday, where the pair will compete for a spot at the Crucible.

Saengkham marked his 147th career century with the maximum effort, which was the 20th that has been achieved at the World Championship.

The 31-year-old achieved only the second 147 break of his career to move 7-3 ahead before he rubber-stamped his spot in the final qualification round with a commanding win.

After potting the final red into the right middle with a slight nick off the knuckle, Saengkham fiercely drilled the black into the bottom left to set up his final demolition of the colours.

The yellow and green went down with no fuss, before a technical shot on the brown was required to set up a pot on the blue, which Saengkham perfected with a nudge off the top rail with the cue ball.

After the blue, he had to stretch across the table to see the pink ball go down before he wrapped up the superb effort with the black to the bottom left.

The 202nd maximum break in professional snooker was greeted by a round of applause from the crowd in Sheffield as Saengkham moved one step closer to the tournament proper.

Elsewhere on Monday, Hossein Vafaei came through his tie with Marco Fu 10-4 and will face Jiang Jun in the final qualifying round.

Julien Leclercq was well beaten by Joe O’Connor who won 10-1 to set up a clash with Matthew Selt, while Cao Yupeng beat Ma Hailong 10-4.