Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon at the 2015 Paul Hunter Classic in Fürth
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| Born | 14 December 1993 |
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| Sport country |
 Thailand
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| Nickname | Thai-Namite |
| Professional | 2010/11, 2012–2016 |
| Highest ranking | 67 (September 2012) |
| Career winnings | £44,059 |
| Highest break | 147 (2010 Rhein-Main Masters) |
| Century breaks | 17 |
| Best ranking finish | Last 32 (2011 German Masters, 2013 Indian Open) |
Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon (Thai: ธนวัฒน์ ถิรพงศ์ไพบูลย์ Ṭhnwạtʹhn̒ T̄hirphngṣ̄̒phịbūly̒; born December 14, 1993) is a Thai professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2010 as the Asian nomination following his run to the semi-finals of the 2010 Asian Championship. At the age of 17, he was the youngest player competing on the 2010/2011 main tour.
He is also the youngest snooker player that ever made an official Maximum Break of 147 points in a professional competition, he was at the age of 16 years and 312 days.
In his very first professional tournament, the Shanghai Masters Thirapongpaiboon made an impact by beating Justin Astley 5–3, Mark Joyce 5–4 and Nigel Bond 5–1 before losing 4–5 to Mark Davis, just one frame away from reaching the final stages in Shanghai.
Thirapongpaiboon made the 74th official maximum break during his third round match against Barry Hawkins at Euro Players Tour Championship 2010/2011 – Event 3, but lost the match 1–4. With this he became the youngest player ever to make an official maximum break at the age of 16 years and 312 days. Nevertheless, he fell off the tour after one year. In July 2011 he won the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship by defeating Noppon Saengkham 9–3 in the final and in doing so earned a place back on the main snooker tour for the 2012/2013 season.
Thirapongpaiboon came through three qualifying matches, before losing in the final round in both the Australian Goldfields Open and the Shanghai Masters, losing to Liang Wenbo and in a last frame decide to Jamie Cope respectively. This was the closest he came to reaching the main of a ranking event. He had a very good season in the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events, reaching the quarter-finals in the fifth and sixth European Tour events. In the fifth event he beat compatriot Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Liu Chuang and top 16 player Barry Hawkins, before losing 3–4 to Anthony McGill, and in the sixth event he beat the likes of Fergal O'Brien, Ricky Walden and Liang Wenbo, before being whitewashed 0–4 by Mark Selby. He also reached the last 16 of another event to finish 38th on the PTC Order of Merit. Thirapongpaiboon defeated Jamie O'Neill 10–8 and Mike Dunn 10–6 in World Championship Qualifying, but his season was ended in the next round when he lost 8–10 to Matthew Selt. He finished the year ranked world number 71.
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