Noppon Saengkham: How He Beat Trump, O'Sullivan and Murphy in Taiyuan

In August, at the China Open in Taiyuan, Noppon Saengkham beat Judd Trump 6–3, Ronnie O'Sullivan 6–4 and Shaun Murphy 6–4 in the space of six days. Then he beat Zhou Yuelong 6–5 with a 134 total clearance in the deciding frame. Then he led Mark Selby 4–2 in the final and lost 10–6.

It was the second ranking final of his career. The first, the 2023 Scottish Open, he lost 9–5 to Gary Wilson. He is 34, ranked 31st in the world, and has never been higher than 22nd. So how does a player like that get through Trump, O'Sullivan and Murphy back to back? Mostly by winning the frames nobody remembers.

Ugly frames count the same

Across the five main-stage matches in Taiyuan, Saengkham won 30 frames. In 12 of them he never made a break of 50. He won them in pieces: 67–36, 71–25, 60–58.

The O'Sullivan match is the clearest case. O'Sullivan made more breaks of 50 or better, three to two, and won his four frames by a combined 348 points to 63, three of them without Saengkham scoring a point. Saengkham won six frames, and four of them came without a single 50 break. The match finished 511 points to 451. O'Sullivan had the big visits; Saengkham had the scoreboard.

Against Trump it was more direct. Saengkham made breaks of 64, 51, 120 and 78 and won 565 points to 367. Trump won two frames with runs of 85 and 91, and a third 60–47.

Against Murphy the key frame was the eighth: Saengkham took it 60–58 to go 5–3 up instead of 4–4. He closed it out two frames later with an 85.

Over the four matches before the final he outscored Trump, O'Sullivan, Murphy and Zhou by 2,290 points to 1,808.

The decider against Zhou

The semi-final was the one he almost let go. Saengkham led Zhou Yuelong 5–3. Zhou made a 99 and a 74 to level at 5–5. In the decider Saengkham got in and cleared the table for 134. Asked about it afterwards, he said he had told himself "if I had one chance I had to go for it."

That was his fourth win in five meetings with Zhou since August 2025. Zhou's only win in that run was 5–1 at the 2025 Wuhan Open.

Where the final turned

Saengkham led Selby 4–2 in the afternoon session. The seventh frame went 70–68 to Selby, after Saengkham had made a 57. Selby took the eighth too, so it was 4–4 at the interval, and Selby later said he had been "fortunate to pinch the last two frames".

He then won the first four frames of the evening. That made it six in a row, from 2–4 down to 8–4, with breaks of 58, 90, 69 and 52. Saengkham's 68 in the fourteenth frame wasn't enough either: he lost it 77–68. Selby made seven breaks of 50 or more in the final, including a 138, and won it 895 points to 764.

There is some history between the two. Saengkham beat Selby 5–4 at the 2018 World Open in a match that lasted four hours and 26 minutes, and lost to him 13–12 in the last 16 of the 2020 World Championship.

Since Taiyuan

The run has not carried over. Saengkham lost 4–3 to John Higgins in the last 64 of the British Open, then 6–3 to Sam Craigie in qualifying for the International Championship, so he will not be in Nanjing at the end of the month.

It fits the rest of his season. At the Wuhan Open, Shenzhen Open, British Open, English Open and International Championship he has won two of seven matches, losing to David Gilbert, Lan Yuhao, Florian Nusle, Higgins and Craigie.

The Century Radar Form Rating, which weighs recent results by the strength of the opponent, had him 23rd before the China Open and 11th after it. He is 12th now, nineteen places above his official ranking. The rating reads Taiyuan as real evidence of his level, not a fluke. The results either side of it say he has to show it again.

Belfast next

His next chance is the Northern Ireland Open at the Waterfront Hall, 18–25 October. He opens against fellow Thai Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon over the best of seven, in the bottom half of the draw with Mark Allen and Wu Yize. Every round he won in Taiyuan was best of eleven. Best of seven leaves less room for the slow, low-scoring frames that carried him there.

For how the rest of the season has gone, see our 2026-27 season so far.