Wattana

Player Profile

James Wattana

Born:	17 January 1970. Bangkok, Thailand
Turned Professional:	1989
Highest Break:	147 (Three times)
Career Centuries	140 (to end of 2008/9 season)
Highest Ranking	3rd (1993/4)

James Wattana or Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm to give him his proper name, has been the leader of the invasion of snooker from the Far East. He first qualified for the world amateur championship in 1985 but did not get beyond the group stages. In 1986 he won the Asian amateur championship but again failed to get beyond the group stage of the world championship. He also came over to the UK and was runner up in the British Under-19 event to Barry Pinches. In the autumn of 1986, still aged only 16, he beat Dennis Taylor, Steve Davis and Terry Griffiths to win the Camus Thailand Masters. He was runner up in the 1987 Asian championship and went all the way to the quarter-finals of the world championships, losing out to the eventual winner, Darren Morgan. Having regained the Asian title in 1988 he took part in the professional ticket qualifying events in the UK, winning the first and losing in the final of the second. He picked up a £6000 cheque winning the Kent Challenge in Hong Kong and at last won the world amateur championship in Sydney beating Barry pinches 11-8 in the final. This guaranteed him professional status for the 1989/90 season.

Great things were expected of the young Thai and he did not disappoint. He reached the final of only his second ranking event. Appropriately enough this was the Asian Open in front of his home fans in Bangkok. Hendry beat him 9-6. He reached the semi-final of the next event but one, the Grand Prix, and received an invitation to the Benson & Hedges Masters where he reached the quarter-finals and ended his first season just outside the top 32. In 1990/1 he started the season by winning the Hong Kong Masters but in ranking events the last 16 was as far as he got. He did record his first maximum 147. This was on the way to the semi-finals of the huge Mita World Masters event. Mainly due to his previous season’s form he was up to 20th in the world rankings.

Interest in his home country was immense and the pressure on him to do well, enormous. Millions watched him on television and even the King of Thailand sent him best wishes. Despite this pressure, he reached the semi-final of the 1991 UK championship and the next event, the Mercantile Credit Classic. He followed this with the quarter-final of the Welsh and the runner - up in the British Open where he knocked in his second 147 of the season. All he now needed was a ranking title and it came in the very next event, the Strachan Open where he beat John Parrott 9-5 in the final. He ended that season with his first visit to the Crucible where he reached the last 16 and his ranking was up to 7th. In 1992/3, on the ranking circuit, James lost in the final of both the British & Welsh Opens and reached the semis of four other tournaments including the Embassy. He was also runner-up in the B & H Masters and took both the Humo Masters and World Matchplay titles. After the latter he arrived home to a hero’s welcome. He was now up to fifth in the rankings.

In 1993/4 he gained his second ranking title, the Thailand Open, and was runner-up in the Sky International and British Open. Solid performances in all the other tour events took him up to number three in the world. Although he retained his Thailand Open title the following season and reached two other semi-finals, his other results were mixed and his ranking fell a couple of places. His form continued to be indifferent the next season and he arrived at the 1996 world championships needing to win his opening match to stay in the top 16. He just managed to do so but continued to lose too many opening matches.

1996/7 saw him only get past the last 16 on three occasions but he did hang on to his 12th ranking position thanks to reaching his second world semi-final at the Crucible. His best showing the next season was a semi-final in the China International where he also achieved his third maximum. Otherwise it was a story of early exits and he struggled to stay in the top 16 ending the season 15th. Since then his form has not been helped by problems with his eyesight and he has only managed two quarter-finals in the last four seasons. He dropped out of the top 16 at the end of the 1998/9 season and continued to fall just managing to hang on to 32nd place at the end of the 2000/01 season, a position which he just retained at the end of the next.

It was always going to be a struggle to hang on to his top 32 place yet again and with just three wins in the entire 2002/03 season he dropped to 34th, his lowest ever position. Thing began well in 2003/04 as he won the first Euro-Asia Masters Challenge, an invitation event in Hong Kong. He had some good results in the ranking events and showed some of his old form at times but, although he moved up a place, he just failed to regain that place in the top 32.

In 2004/5 he reached his first ranking quarter final for five years in the Grand Prix and this helped him reclaim that top 32 slot. The following season he reached another quarter final and climbed a further seven places to 25th, his highest ranking for seven years.

The revival in his fortunes did not continue and at the end of the 2007/7 campaign he was out of the top 32 again and after the next season he finished outside the to 64 which meant he had lost his place on the tour after 19 seasons. However in 2009 he regained the Asian Snooker Championshipm 21 years after he had last won it and reclaimed a place on the tour.

James is one of his country’s greatest heroes. As well as being voted their Sportsman of the Year on three occasions, he was also honoured with the Order of the Crown of Thailand by his king, only the second sportsman to receive that award. He became the eighth player to achieve £1 million in prize money and that has risen to over £1.8 million. His 140 century breaks have included three maximums. He has done so much to raise the profile of snooker, not only in Thailand but also throughout the Far East.

Career Highlights

World Professional Snooker Championship semi finalist	1993, 1997
Strachan Open champion	1992
Thailand Open champion	1994, 1995
World Matchplay champion	1992
Kent Cup champion	1994
Hong Kong Masters champion	1900
Humo Masters champion	1992
Euro-Asia Masters Challenge (1st Leg) champion	2003
Thailand Masters champion	1986
IBSF World (Amateur) champion	1988
ACBS Asian (Amateur) champion	1986, 1988, 2009
Thailand Amateur champion	1985, 1987