Akani Songsermsawad (Thai: ซันนี่ อรรคนิธิ์ ส่งเสริมสวัสดิ์; born 10 September 1995), better known as Sunny Akani, is a Thai professional snooker player.
In 2017, he started the season like the year before. He reached the Last 16 of the 2017 Indian Open after beating Scott Donaldson, Stephen Maguire, and Dominic Dale before losing 4–2 to Liam Highfield. At the 2017 World Open qualifying round, he had a close match against Liang Wenbo losing 5–4 after being 2–0 and 4–2 up and scoring back-to-back century breaks (101 and 119) but losing the "decider". At the 2017 International Championship, he was 2–0, 3–1 and 4–2 behind but he won the last 4 frames to beat Marco Fu by 6–4. In the last frame, he cleared the table with a break of 53 to win the frame by 2 points. After a walkover in the last 64, he lost against Martin O'Donnell 5–6, despite a lead of 5–2.
During the 2017 UK Championship, Akani defeated three higher seeds, defeating Fergal O'Brien 6–5, Michael Holt 6–4, and whitewashing former world championship runner-up Barry Hawkins 6–0. After the match, Hawkins said the match "was up there with one of the worst I have ever played".[10] In the last 16, Akani drew Ronnie O'Sullivan and went ahead at scores of 2–0, 4–2 and 5–4, before losing the match 6–5. After the match O'Sullivan stated he believed Akani "deserved to win" and "felt like (he) robbed him of victory".[11]
Akani failed to qualify for the first ranking event of the season, losing 4–3 to Oliver Lines in the qualifying round of the 2018 Riga Masters. He beat Fan Zhengyi 6–5 to qualify for the 2018 World Open, where he was defeated 5–2 in the first round by Barry Hawkins. Akani reached the semi-finals of the non-ranking 2018 Haining Open, where he was defeated 4-2 by Li Hang. He followed this by the knockout stage of the non-ranking Six-red World Championship, coming through the round-robin stage by finishing second in Group E, scoring victories over Jimmy Robertson and Mohamed Khairy, and losing to group winner Ding Junhui. In the knockout stage, he beat Stephen Maguire and Mohammed Shehab 6–5 to reach the semi-finals, where he lost 7–5 to eventual champion Kyren Wilson.
In July, Akani contracted COVID-19, although was not withdrawn from any events. However, in an interview after losing in the 2022 European Masters, he revealed that he had Long COVID and was unable to practise for more than minutes, where normally he would be on the snooker table as much as he was able to be on it. This led to a significant dip in form throughout the 2021-22 season, which lef to his eventual relegation from the tour.[14]
2024
Akani successfully reclaimed professional status by reaching the final of Event 1 of the Asia and Oceania Q School.[15]
Style of play
Akani is known for his very deliberate cue action, where he plants his hand down with the cue before playing the next shot. In the book 147 Snooker Drills and Exercises by Andrew Highfield, he named a challenge after Akani, after challenging him to complete the drill.[16] He is also known for resting his chin on the cue extension when playing with a rest.