Steven Wong has lifted The Tom Kollins Trophy as he has won the United States National Snooker Championship title for the first time after defeating Raymond Fung in the 2022 final at Ox Billiards in Seattle.

It was the culmination of what has been a truly magnificent Championship, played in great spirit and in an amazing location which has provided the highest quality professional tournament tables, and attracted a live streaming audience that reached snooker fans right around the world.

The biggest shock of course was the round of 16 exit of the defending and six-times champion Ahmed Aly Elsayed, but we got to see some new very enthusiastic players including the only woman player in the event, Seattle's very own Frances Tso.

It would never have been unexpected to have seen Fung come through into the final, being a former champion and three-time runner-up. Though Wong's final appearance was a pleasant surprise considering that his previous best performance in this Championship was to reach the semifinals way back in 2007, and he made it to the quarterfinals in both 2018 and 2019.

Wong lost one of his group matches to finish in second place, though in the knockout rounds he has progressively improved his performaces just enough to fight off each opponent which is the mark of a tenacious player.

The Californian started this best-of-9-frames final the much better player as Fung found it very difficult to settle down, and he pulled away to take an early 2-0 advantage. But when you have made it through to at least the semifinals of the past eight Championships as Fung has done, you are a player of ability who has the experience to rise to the challenge ahead of you.

Fung hit back in the best way to frustrate his opponent in the next two frames of which he secured very decisively, and in the frame after the mid-session interval he found himself twenty-six points behind with just the colors remaining in the table. The number three seed fought hard to go on to pocket all those colors and win the frame by one point.

Despite now having a 3-2 lead, Fung's game seemed to change as the prospect of winning his second Championship title must have started to dawn on him. He appeared to go into a very defensive style of play, as to try and not to lose the final rather than going to push on to win it.

Wong capitalized on this defensive play by Fung, as he saw his opponent take an ultra cautious approach when presented with successive opportunities. Fung just could not now find any rhythm to make any significant contributions amongst the balls, and Wong was able to strike back to easily seal the next two frames to regain the advantage 4-3.

In the eighth frame Fung managed to put up a little more resistance, but it was never going to be enough as he conceded frame and match after requiring too many snookers and Wong claimed a 5-3 victory.

The final result as follows:

Final (Best-of-9 frames)
Match ID
F	Raymond Fung (New York) 2	3 - 5	Steven Wong (California)
Frame scores and 30+ breaks in brackets (Fung's score stated first): 1st. 26-66   2nd. 46-61   3rd. 78(33)-13   4th. 75-10   5th. 55-54   6th. 13-47   7th. 17-78   8th. 43-78

Alan Morris, the Executive Director of the United States Snooker Association (USSA), commented after the match: "What can I say! What a fabulous Championship! First I would like to congratulate Steven in claiming his first Championship title. The way he was able to always be one step ahead of his opponents performance wise, is testament to all the hard work he has put into his practice in recent years.

"I would though like to thank all the players who participated, because it is you who make a successful Championship. The entry spots filled up so quickly this year such was the appetite to play. It was unfortunate that we had to restrict the numbers as we could have had so many more, but we only had four tables available to play the Championship on.

"I cannot praise enough the people at Ox Billiards though, for their passion for snooker and for providing such an amazing location to stage the Championship with first class tables to play it on.

"To Mike Dominguez, Jaime Miller, Dave Daly, Christian Youngers and David Burney on the livestream commentary, thank you for all of your amazing work and dedication, and we look forward to continue working with you all into the future.

"The host for the 2023 Championship will be announced early in 2023, when we look forward to doing this all again!"