World No. 130 Dechawat, returning to the professional arena after a five-year absence, saw a two-frame lead eaten up by seven-time world champion O’Sullivan to lose 4-2.
However, the 44-year-old Thai did enough to leave an impression on the Englishman who likened him to Rowan Atkinson’s famous TV character.
“I thought there was no point just trying to play straightforward snooker, let’s just have a laugh,” O’Sullivan, who made a break of 104 in the penultimate frame, told wst.tv.
“I went for some doubles and trebles, some of them went in, crazy things can happen when you go for it.
“He’s like a Mr Bean type character, he pulls these funny faces and his mannerisms - he should go into comedy, he’d be a great character.”
O’Sullivan was then defeated 4-1 on Thursday (Dec 15) by compatriot Martin Gould. “He played great, he played too good for me. Nothing I could do today,” said a gracious O’Sullivan in defeat.
The championship has been overshadowed after seven Chinese players were banned as the result of a probe into match-fixing.
Lu Ning, Li Hang, Zhao Jianbo, Bai Langning and Chang Bingyu were all suspended last week, with 2021 Masters champion Yan Bingtao banned last Monday.
A seventh player, Liang Wenbo, was suspended in October pending a “domestic misconduct” investigation.
Be the first to comment.