Sunny Akani won the hearts of the snooker world with an ultra-impressive performance against Ronnie O’Sullivan – which very nearly landed him the best win of his career.
The 22-year-old Thai cueman led the Rocket 4-2 and 5-4 but was pipped to the post by an experienced champion who is through to the last eight of the UK Championship and hunting for a record-equalling sixth title.
What a breath of fresh air Sunny is; always playing the game with a huge smile on his face and never afraid to take on the big boys as he demonstrated here.
Sunny has earned plenty of plaudits for his performance which saw him knock in several excellent long pots, put together some great breaks as well as mixing in his trademark tactical approach which makes it difficult for his opponents to get chances.
It’s great to see Sunny make his mark on TV and receive such a warm response – showcasing again to the audience some of the raw talents that lie beneath the top layer in our game.
How he played against Ronnie is what he’s already been doing for most of the season and highlights his progress once more.
To set up this tie with O’Sullivan he’s already had to beat Fergal O’Brien, Michael Holt and Barry Hawkins in York and earlier in the campaign he’s also recorded wins against Marco Fu, Andrew Higginson, Stuart Bingham and Stephen Maguire proving he’s no stranger to a big scalp and in many ways this shows the beauty of Barry Hearn’s open-draw system.
It means that young talents like Sunny are used to playing the sport’s household names and are not over-awed when it comes to big occasion. He’s done himself proud in this tournament, has won plenty of admirers (including Ronnie) and will now be a name many fans look out for in the future.
@ronnieo147 edges it [6-5], but Sunny Akani delighted all at the York Barbican tonight!
Memorable #baizeofglory @betway
