Thor Chuan Leong (; born 24 March 1988) is a

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regar ...

former professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

player. He is commonly referred to as Rory Thor.

Career

Thor, based in

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Ma ...

, Malaysia represented his country at the 2006 &

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until th ...

and in the

2013 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games The 2013 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games ( ko, 2013년 실내 무도 아시아 경기대회/2013년 실내 무도 아시안 게임, Icheon sip-sam nyeon silnae mudo Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheon sip-sam nyeon silnae mudo asian geim), officially ...

and

2013 Southeast Asian Games The 2013 Southeast Asian Games ( my, ၂၀၁၃ ခုနှစ် အရှေ့တောင် အာရှ အားကစား ပြိုင်ပွဲ), officially known as the 27th Southeast Asian Games, or the 27th SEA Games, and comm ...

, in the Southeast Asian Games he won bronze in the snooker singles and doubles and gold in the six red snooker singles. In 2014, Thor won the ACBS Asian Snooker Championship in May, beating Taiwan's Hung Chuang Ming 7–3 in the final. This victory gained Thor a two-year card on the professional

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...

for the 2014–15 and 2015/2016 seasons. However, despite the tour starting in May, Thor did not start playing on the tour until February 2015. He played in the

Six-red World Championship The Six-red World Championship is a six-red snooker tournament, played with the six and six . Ding Junhui is the reigning champion. History The event was first held in the 2008/2009 season, and was known as the Six-red Snooker International ...

, but lost all five of his group matches. In his first match in a ranking event qualifier he was beaten 1–4 by

Dechawat Poomjaeng Dechawat Poomjaeng ( ''Dechāwạt Phùmcæ̂ng'', born July 11, 1978) is a Thai professional snooker player. Career Early career He won the 2010 IBSF World Snooker Championship in Damascus, Syria, defeating India's Pankaj Advani 10–7 in the ...

. Although Thor lost all four of his matches this season he did push top 16 player

Stuart Bingham Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player who is a former world and Masters champion. Bingham won the 1996 World Amateur Championship but enjoyed little sustained success in the early part of his professional ...

to a deciding frame in the first round of the Welsh Open. Thor again failed to win a single match in ranking events during the 2015–16 season; in contrast, he performed successfully in the European Tour events, winning all of his first-round matches and reaching last 16 twice, at the

Paul Hunter Classic The Paul Hunter Classic is a non-ranking snooker tournament. It changed from a ranking event to a 16-man invitational event in 2019. From 2010 to 2015 it was part of the Players Tour Championship. Barry Hawkins is the reigning champion. After los ...

and the Gdynia Open. As a result, Thor was able to secure his place on the Main Tour for two further seasons by finishing tied 31st on the

Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by ...

. A 5–2 victory over

Jack Lisowski Jack Adam Lisowski (born 25 June 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Churchdown, Gloucestershire. He turned professional in 2010 by finishing first in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. A left-handed player, he is known for his att ...

saw Thor qualify for the 2016 World Open and he reached the second round by beating

Luca Brecel Luca Brecel (born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player. He won the European Under-19 title at the age of 14 and went on to break Stephen Hendry's record as the youngest player ever to compete at the Crucible Theatre. He made hi ...

5–3, before losing 1–5 to

Neil Robertson Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...

. He also advanced to the last 32 of the

Gibraltar Open The Gibraltar Open was a ranking snooker tournament. In 2015 it was part of the Players Tour Championship. The tournament started in 2015 and was staged at the Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar. Robert Milkins Robert Milkins (born 6 M ...

with wins over Matthew Roberts and Gary Wilson, but lost 3–4 to

Igor Figueiredo Igor Almeida Figueiredo (born October 11, 1977) is a Brazilian former professional snooker player. Career Amateur career Prior to entering the PIOS tour in 2009, Figueiredo had only played on 10-foot tables in his home country. Despite this, his ...

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Pro-am finals: 3 (2 titles)

Amateur finals: 2 (1 title)

References

External links