Luca Brecel will get the defence of his title underway at the Crucible on 10am on Saturday April 20th, and he’ll conclude his opening match on the same day from 7pm.
Judd Trump will also be in action on the first day, he starts his campaign at 2.30pm, and his match concludes at 2.30pm on Sunday April 21st.
Mark Williams, the man in form having won the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship, gets underway on Monday April 22nd at 2.30pm and plays to a finish the following afternoon.
World number three Mark Allen plays on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, while world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan enters the fray at 2.30pm on Wednesday April 24th and concludes the following afternoon.
The draw for the last 32 will be made on Thursday April 18th around 8.45am on BBC Radio 5 Live, streamed on the BBC Sport website. The top 16 seeds will be drawn at random against the 16 qualifiers.
CRUCIBLE QUALIFYING DAY TWO: RÉVÉSZ WEATHERS THE STORM
Hungary’s Bulcsú Révész roared back from 6-1 down to beat Sean O’Sullivan 10-8 and make the second round of Cazoo World Championship qualifying in Sheffield.
The 17-year-old rising star earned his place on the World Snooker Tour from next season by winning this season’s WSF Junior Championship. Révész defeated China’s Gong Chenzhi 5-3 in the final to become his country’s first ever main tour professional.
He’s only appeared on the main circuit three times before, most recently only breaking off and watching Shaun Murphy fire in a stunning 147 break at the Shoot Out just prior to the New Year.
Revesz is appearing in World Championship qualifying for the second time, having lost out to Jamie O’Neill last year. He had looked in trouble again yesterday, when he trailed 6-1 and today when he was 8-5 behind. However, a brilliant blast of five frames on the bounce saw him claim a momentous 10-8 win and set up a second round clash with James Cahill.
“I’m so happy for those people from Hungary who are always supporting me and behind me. I’m getting messages all of the time. It is a really good feeling to have their support. I hope it is going to improve the whole of snooker in Hungary.”
Bulcsú Révész
WSF Junior Champion
Révész added: “I was 6-1 down yesterday and the one thing I wanted to do was not give up. It ended 6-3 and I thought if I played my best today then I could win. At 8-5 down it was the same thoughts again. I didn’t want this match to be 10-5 to him.
“My goal before this tournament was to win this match. I’ve reached my goal and I would like to enjoy the next game. Today I did enjoy it and I hope I will in the next match as well. Of course I would like to win that. I still didn’t play my best game today and I know I can play better. I’ve already played a match and James hasn’t, so I think I can beat him.”
Fergal O’Brien’s 33-year professional career came to an end after a 10-8 loss against Egypt’s Mostafa Dorgham.
The highlight of O’Brien’s time on the World Snooker Tour saw him lift the British Open trophy in 1999 and he’s appeared at the Crucible on 10 occasions. However, the Dubliner has taken the decision to hang up the cue and focus on commentary and coaching.
It’s Dorgham’s first full match win of the season and he will now play 2006 World Champion Graeme Dott.
Louis Heathcote set up a crunch second round clash with close friend Oliver Lines, after scoring a 10-4 win over Oliver Sykes this afternoon.
Last year Heathcote lost his professional status after defeat here in Sheffield to Andrew Higginson. He bounced straight back on to the circuit via Q School. Relegation could await Lines if he loses to Heathcote, with his position on tour hanging by a thread.
Heathcote said: “It’s not very nice, but it is dog eat dog in this game. We will both be wanting to win and after that we will shake hands and be friends again.”
Swiss number one Alexander Ursenbacher completed a 10-0 whitewash win over Ukraine’s Iulian Boiko, while Oliver Brown defeated 12-time Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans 10-0.
URSENBACHER REFLECTS ON WHITEWASH WIN
Note that I have edited the text above … I have corrected “Bulcsú Révész” spelling all over WST report. Why on earth that they even make the effort to spell the names of some of the non British players correctly? In snooker we hear all the time “This (anything) is disrespectful” and most of the time it’s so minor that I wonder why people even bother with it. But WST can’t even be arsed to spell the names of their non British professional players correctly. Well … that IS disrespectful.
Ok, now that I got this out of my system … here are my thoughts on what happened on the baize.
The women – all of them so far, except for Bai Yulu – have been terrible. Mink got beat by 10-5 having lead 4-1 and it’s not as if Adam Duffy played outstanding either: his HB was 55 and his pot success a mere 51%. Reanne Evans managed to get herself whitewashed by Oliver Brown who is a very decent player but hardly a world beater. This isn’t the Reanne who beat Robin Hull by 10-8 as this same event in 2017 and ran Dominic Dale uncomfortably close the next year. Baipat unsurprisingly was beaten 10-1 by Marco Fu, and ok, that was to be expected as Marco is a top player and he scored very heavily: he had seven breaks over 50 during the match. All the same it’s all quite disheartening.
And then, we say goodbye to Fergal O’Brien … I had the pleasure to meet Fergal on several occasions, notably in Jason’s Francis’s “Legends Cups”. His pace on the baize drove me mad a few times, but off the table he’s a truly charming person, a family man, and great company … jovial, smiling … he likes his Guinness and and his Irish Square Dances! He’s a good mover, is Fergal. I will miss him and I do hope that he gets involved in Seniors Snooker in some capacity. Fergal, come on … we need a Seniors Irish Masters in Goffs every season!
All the best for the future Fergal ! ☘️
I was agreeably surprised by Mostafa Dorgham, the man from Egypt who beat Fergal yesterday. I thought he played really well although to succeed as a pro he need to score more heavily. Despite what was at stake, it was a good match to watch.
It was a match with two very different halves yesterday, as Willo raced to a 9-0 lead before Mark Allen started mounting a very serious comeback challenge. The final score – 10-5 to Willo – looks comfortable but the last third of the match was extremely tense.
Mark Williams survived a late charge from Mark Allen to win 10-5 in the semi-finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship, setting up his first ranking event final against Ronnie O’Sullivan in 24 years.
From 9-0 down, Allen got half way to what would have been snooker’s greatest ever comeback and his opponent was getting edgy at 9-5, but Williams came up with an excellent break in the 15th frame to get the job done. Having beaten Judd Trump 10-4 in the previous round, the veteran Welshman has scored two of his best results in recent years back-to-back, knocking out two of the top three in the world rankings.
And on Sunday he’ll be up against the world number one, a rival he has known and respected since their junior days, before they both turned professional in 1992, along with John Higgins. The last ranking event final between Williams and O’Sullivan was the 2000 China Open, and tomorrow’s meeting at the superb Manchester Central venue will be a huge occasion.
“I’m just going to enjoy it,” said Williams. “How many more times is this going to happen? I couldn’t pick a better player to play in a final. I’m going to attack and try my best.“
O’Sullivan leads the head-to-head 33-9, and Williams has won just two of their last 24 meetings, but if the 49-year-old can play as well as he did today, then it could be a classic contest. Williams will be playing in his 41st ranking final and aiming for a 26th title and second of the season having landed the Cazoo British Open in September.
Three-time World Champion Williams took all eight frames of the opening session against Allen, knocking in breaks of 57, 99, 105 and 112. When he took the opener tonight with a 140 total clearance, a remarkable whitewash was on the cards, and it would have been the first televised match to finish 10-0 since Shaun Murphy beat Luo Honghao by that scoreline at the Crucible in 2019.
Allen, whose never-say-die attitude has won him plenty of matches over the past two seasons, gained a foothold with a break of 65 in frame ten, then reeled off four more with runs of 53, 79, 56 and 69. But Williams knocked in a long red at the start of frame 15 and clinched the result with a break of 75.
“I was a bit worried at 9-5,” admitted Williams. “I had a couple of chances to win 9-1 or 9-2. Mark played really well after that. If it had gone 9-6 then I was really under it. But the break I made in the last frame was as good as any I made in the match, it’s nice to know I’ve still got that bottle.
“In the first session my safety was really solid, my breaks and long potting were good. I could have easily had six or seven centuries during the match. He had one chance at 5-0 when he missed a tricky blue, apart from that in a lot of frames he was never in them because I tied him up in knots. At the end he wished me best of the luck in the final. Mark is more than capable of winning the world title, as for me, who knows? That’s for other people to say.
“I know I haven’t played Ronnie in a final for a long time but that’s because he keeps beating me before the final!”
The match gets underway at 1pm on Sunday with eight frames, then the remainder from 7pm. First to ten will lift the trophy and receive £150,000.
In frame 5, Willo missed the last red for a 147…
So today’s final will be contested between a 49 years old and a 48 years old, both still in the top 16, and the “younger man” being world number one! I love them both and I’m over the moon for both but, lets face it, that’s worrying for the future of the sport. All of those older players who still thrive today have developed through a tiered system. In fact Judd Trump – who isn’t old of course, but is in his mid thirties – is the last player who really managed to establish himself in the top 8, and by establish I mean get into that group and manage stay there as a resident member for seasons in a row. He too came through the old tiered system. I remember him being very unhappy when the announcement came about making the flat draw the norm. He felt that he had earned the right to be a seed at major events through hard work and that this was somehow taken away from him. If you look at the current top 16, all but Kyren Wilson and Luca Brecel have “grown” with the tired system and neither Kyren nor Luca have been consistent winners, despite Luca’s truly exceptional talent. I’m absolutely convinced that the tiered system is better for players development and that’s why I am happy with yesterday’s announcement.
Now let’s go back to a less “top heavy” point system that “reward” similar tournaments the same way and it will be even better. Tournaments with longer formats should be more rewarding ranking wise than the ones with shorter formats, no matter how much money a sponsor is wanting to throw in any particular event. The old point system was probably rewarding consistency a bit too much but that can be easily “corrected”.
A ELO type rating system would be even better and fairer, of course, because it would take the relative strength of the players, as well as the match score, into account in every match. And, NO, it isn’t hard to understand.
TIERED FORMAT FOR HOME NATIONS AND GERMAN MASTERS IN 2024/25
Next season’s Home Nations events, as well as the German Masters, will have a tiered format, which means that all of the world’s top 32 will start in the last-64 round at the final venue.
The round structure for the 2024 English Open, Northern Ireland Open and Scottish Open as well as the 2025 German Masters and Welsh Open will be:
Qualifying rounds Round one Players seeded 65-96 v players seeded 97-128
Round two Those 32 winners v players seeded 33-64
Final venue Last 64 32 qualifiers v players seeded 1-32
This change gives the lower ranked players the opportunity to earn prize money through the earlier rounds and beyond, while ensuring that television audiences and ticket-holders can see the leading players at the final venue. To support this change, we will be increasing prize money for all of these events to over £500,000.
WST Chairman Steve Dawson said: “The 2024/25 season will undoubtedly be the biggest season in the history of the sport. We have announced events with prize money in excess of £16 million and there will be further announcements regarding prize money and new events that will take us close to our target of £20 million; a target we had set for the 2026/27 season and that we expect to hit well in advance of time. This could see not only two or three players hitting over £1 million prize money from a single season that we will witness this year, but four, five or six players joining that group.”
(The “green highlighting” above is my doing.)
This is excellent news , in my view at least. That will come to no surprise to regular readers of this blog. This new approach will mean that at most 32 players will come out of those events penniless, instead of 64 currently. It will also mean that the lowest ranked players will play their first match against opponents ranked outside the top 64. They will be guaranteed a more winnable first match. This is particularly important for the young players and the rookies. Adapting to the professional tour isn’t easy and being hammered all the time is not helping in any way. It destroys both confidence and self-esteem. Being guaranteed matches of progressive difficulty should help.
I have had disagreements about this subject with some of the older (former) pros who came through the old tiered system. Yes, there was too much protection because the players entering at level “n”, should they lose, were guaranteed the same points the “n-1” level winners. I expect that, in this system, even IF the players entering at a “higher” level get some money if they lose their first match, it won’t count towards their ranking, just as it is the case now for the seeds losing their opening match at the Crucible.
Barry Pinches – who I respect and like – was particularly vocal against the tiered system, arguing that it meant that the lower ranked players had to win more matches to win a tournament than the higher seeds. This is true, but I’m not sure it’s a bad thing… in particular for the younger ones. They need to “grow” as professionals and for that they need to play as much as they can. The current system often left them for weeks with nothing at all to play in, brooding over yet another first round defeat against an opponent far too strong and experienced for them.
The next good move would be to have those qualifiers played at, or next to, the main event venue, the week before the main event. That would guarantee that the in-form players are in the “main” draw, as opposed to having there the players who were “in-form” two months earlier in the season. The wildcards, in any, should enter those events at the bottom, play in those qualifiers in front of their friends and family with a reasonable hope to be able to show what they can do.
Four-time Crucible king Mark Selby revealed that he could quit snooker at the end of this season, after a “pathetic” performance in a 10-8 reverse against Gary Wilson in the first round of the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship.
…
Wilson, who has already won two ranking titles during the best season of his career, goes through to face Zhang Anda in the quarter-finals in Manchester on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.
But world number five Selby was left dejected by his own game and insisted that the Cazoo World Championship, which starts on April 20th, could be his last event. “From start to finish I was pathetic, I didn’t deserve to win,” said the Leicester cueman. “I tried and battled but it was terrible. If I carry on playing like that, that will be it for me, for sure.
“I felt flat, it’s a big tournament and if you can’t get yourself up for events like this there’s something wrong. I have always said that if I get to the point where I am not enjoying it, it doesn’t matter whether you are number one in the world or number 128, I won’t carry on playing. I am still putting the work in, but if you practise for performances like that it seems pointless. If I put in the same performance in Sheffield, that will be me done.“
Wilson, playing in this event for the first time, took a 5-3 lead in the first session on Monday with top breaks of 95, 98, 78, 101. The first six frames today were shared to leave the Wallsend potter 8-6 in front. In frame 15 he had clear chances to extend his lead, but twice missed the brown to a centre pocket on the brink of 9-6. Selby converted an excellent brown-to-black clearance to close to 8-7.
The 16th also came down to the colours, and this time Wilson cleared from yellow to black to go two up with three to play. Selby pulled one back with a run of 90 and had a chance for 9-9, but missed a red to a centre pocket on 30 in frame 18. That proved his last shot as Wilson finished in style with a 105.
Wilson said: “It wasn’t a great game, we both missed easy chances. It’s still tough to beat someone as good as Mark, though there are not many positives to take from it other than the result. I kept making it difficult for myself and handing him chances to get back into the game. But thankfully I made a good break in the last frame to get over the line.
“I need to find something before tomorrow. You never know in this game, sometimes you feel as if you don’t know where you career is going, it feels that bad. But the positives are that I have had a great season, I’m in the top 16 and I hope I’m just having a blip I will come through. I will stay chirpy and just crack on.”
Meanwhile, Ali Carter raced into a 7-1 lead over Barry Hawkins in match which finishes on Tuesday night. Hawkins took the opening frame with a break of 84, but scored just 26 points in the next six frames as Carter rattled in breaks of 80, 51, 83, 135 and 94.
The last frame of the session came down to a safety battle on the final pink, and Carter converted a thin cut to a centre pocket to extend his lead. The winner will face Ronnie O’Sullivan over two sessions on Wednesday.
Mark Selby’s battle with depression has been well documented. His childhood was traumatic, his mother abandoned him, he lost his father as a teenager and, recently, he had to support his wife Vikki in her battle against cancer. All that is bound to take its toll on him, it would on anyone no matter how though they are and Mark is though. I hope he gets the support he needs. His health has to be the priority, everything else is secondary. I’m glad that mental health issues are better understood nowadays. Not so long ago this kind of post-match would have attracted comments like “what he is about, he’s got plenty of money … he should get a ‘real job’ , go stack boxes in the supermarket … he doesn’t know what hardship is”. 1
Mark Williams made one of the all-time great deciding frame clearances to beat Tom Ford 10-9 in a thrilling finish at the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship.
…
Ford looked set for victory at 9-9 until he missed a red to a top corner leading 54-0. Four of the last seven reds, as well as the blue, were tight to cushions, but veteran Williams pulled off a series of tremendous pots in an extraordinary 66 clearance. He goes through to the quarter-finals in Manchester to face Judd Trump on Thursday.
“I don’t know how I did it but that was one of the best clearances I’ve ever made,” said three-time World Champion Williams. “The shot from blue to pink was very difficult but there was no way I was playing safe on any ball. It’s definitely one of my best.
“Tom was by far the better player, he made four centuries and didn’t win, he must have thought he had me. But I’m used to be being up against it. It shows where my game is at if I can play poorly but still win.”
BEST DECIDING FRAME CLEARANCE EVER?
Leading 5-3 after the first session, 49-year-old Williams extended his advantage to 8-4 with top breaks of 112 and 88. Ford stormed back to 8-7 with runs of 138 (the highest break of the event so far) and 133. He had chances in frame 16 but Williams recovered to take it on a respotted black. Ford then made 90 and 63 for 9-9, and seemed in control of the decider until his missed red, which proved crucial.
British Open champion in September, world number eight Williams is through to his fifth ranking quarter-final of the season.
There was more drama on the other table as Ali Carter survived a Barry Hawkins fight-back to win 10-8. That sets up an intriguing quarter-final with Ronnie O’Sullivan on Wednesday – their first meeting since the bad-tempered Masters final in January.
Carter led 7-1 after the first session and still looked in charge at 8-3 and 9-5. Hawkins got the better of frame 15 then came from 48-0 down to steal the 16th for 9-7. In the next, Carter led 62-4 with three reds left, but Hawkins got the two snookers he needed on the last red, and eventually won it on a respotted back to close within one frame. But world number nine Carter dominated frame 18 to reach his sixth ranking quarter-final of the season.
“At 7-1 sometimes you feel you have it all to lose,” said the Captain. “Barry came back at me really well and it got a bit sticky in the end. But that makes it a better win – if I had won 10-1 it would have felt like a bit of a non-event. I have gone through the wringer and I can’t wait to get back to the hotel for a glass of wine.
“I am just trying my best, I am enjoying it and looking forward to the challenge tomorrow. It will be an open free-flowing match. I’m not going to put myself under any pressure, I’ll just play and see what happens.“
Mark Williams enjoying pool more than snooker as he eyes up more 8-Ball events
Phil Haigh
Mark Williams intends to play a lot more Chinese 8-Ball pool in the months to come, saying he is enjoying the game more than snooker at the moment.
The 49-year-old is still riding high in the snooker world and is in action this week at the Tour Championship, showing how well he is doing as only the top 12 on the one-year ranking list qualify for the event.
However, he has admitted that he doesn’t expect to do well as he has been in China playing in the Joy Cup World Heyball Masters Grand Finals, a huge Chinese 8-Ball event which had a top prize of $700,000 (£557,900).
The Welsh Potting Machine was beaten by one of the greats of the game, Zheng Yubo, in the last 32 in Qinhuangdao but he wants to get back on the pool table as soon as he can, and would love to play Zheng again across both disciplines.
‘I enjoyed every minute of it,’ he said after his last match in China. ‘It’s nice to play the best player in the world, the best Chinese pool player ever.
‘I knew I wasn’t going to beat him, I didn’t have much chance of winning really because it’s the first time I’ve seen a really top player play like that, I think he missed one ball in the whole match.
‘But I loved it and if someone can show me how to break off then I can definitely get a lot close to him. I’d love to play more Chinese pool. It would be nice some time this year maybe if me and Yubo can get a challenge match. He plays me at snooker and I play him at Chinese 8 ball again and I’ll practice a bit more. I’ve seen him play snooker, he makes 147s, so I know how good he is. I think that would be a good challenge match.
‘I probably enjoy playing Chinese 8 ball rather than snooker, to be honest. I just want to play more, I’d like to play more tournaments this year to see if I can get any better.’
…
‘I’m definitely not retiring, but a lot more pool is on the horizon for me,’ he told ITV.
Other snooker players were involved in the event in Qinhuangdao, with the likes of Elliot Slessor and Jimmy Robertson picking up some wins.
Speaking earlier in the season, Williams said he expects more snooker professionals to get involved as and when they can.
‘I think if it doesn’t clash with tournaments I think a lot more (snooker players) will play in it,’ Williams told SportsBoom. ‘I’m going the other way and if a couple of the tournaments do clash with snooker events then I’ll pick the Chinese pool over the snooker tournaments.
‘I enjoy it. It’s the number one game in China. The following that it’s got is massive. The prize money is big, but I don’t think a snooker player has a chance against the top Chinese boys, unless you really practice hard at it.’
And John Higgins is also considering the end of his career after a poor display on Monday, as reported by various media, notably by Eurosport. He hinted that this World Championship could be his “final go“.
At least it did when Ronnie was at the start of his career, with both parents in jail, struggling with taking care of his young sister and battling depression and addictions … this is the kind of comments he got. ↩︎
The Tour Championship was never my favourite event, and, this season, that’s truer than ever. I don’t like the move to increase the field to 12 players. Going by reactions on social media, I’m not the only one with that opinion but it is what it is …
Only one match was played to a conclusion yesterday as Mark Allen beat John Higgins by 10-7 .
Mark Allen admitted he was “very proud” of a mature performance as he recovered from a slow start to beat John Higgins 10-7 in the first round of the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship, staying on track for a fourth title of the season.
Allen trailed 4-1 in the early stages but crucially recovered to 4-4 by the end of the first session. It was neck-and-neck tonight up until 6-6, but world number three Allen proved the stronger player at the business end as he pulled away to take three of the last four frames. He goes through to take on Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals on Wednesday night and Thursday night.
Scotland’s Higgins scored 5-2 wins against Allen at both the BetVictor German Masters and BetVictor Welsh Open earlier this year, but this time he could not capitalise on a strong start and he is still waiting for a first ranking title in three years.
Allen took the opening frame of the evening session with a break of 71 before Higgins levelled at 5-5 with a run of 82. Frame 11 came down to a safety battle on the final black, Allen clipping it into a baulk corner to regain the advantage. Back came Higgins with 62 to draw level, only for Allen to respond with a 102 for 7-6.
In frame 14, Higgins missed the black with two reds left, leading 46-17, and Allen eventually got the better of a safety exchange on the final pink, potting pink and black to go two ahead for the first time. Higgins halved the gap with a break of 86, then Allen’s 93 made it 9-7. In frame 17, Higgins had first chance but made just 20 before missing a straight-forward blue to centre. The Scot later made a safety error and Allen finished in style with a match-winning 100.
“I always look forward to playing John,” said 38-year-old Allen, who currently tops the provisional end of season rankings. “It’s always tough match snooker, good scoring and high quality safety. I’m very proud to have matched him in the safety department and scored better as the match went on.
“A few years ago, from 4-1 down I might have lost the first session 6-2. The things I have been working on with (psychologist) Paul Gaffney have really helped because it has focussed my mind on just playing the next shot and the next frame as well as I can. It was fine margins tonight, I think John played as well as me but I won the close frames.
“My decision-making is more measured. Some people might call it negative, but I am playing the positive shot based on how I am feeling in that moment. Sometimes it’s better to be patient and wait for a better chance.”
Higgins said: “Mark played very well tonight. I should have been in front this afternoon, I lost a bad frame when I should have made it 5-2. I missed two or three unforgiveable balls tonight. My long game was non-existent, and at this level it’s not good enough against the best players. I’ll just need to dust myself down and prepare for the World Championship. I’ve got a couple of weeks to hopefully get some good practice in.”
On the other table, Mark Williams earned a 5-3 lead over Tom Ford in a high quality session. Three-time Crucible king Williams took a 3-0 lead with top breaks of 72 and 59, before Ford pulled one back with a 114. After the interval, Williams made it 4-1 with a run of 76, then Ford took two in a row with 73 and 136. In the last of the session, Ford made 40 then Williams cleared with 86 to stay ahead. They resume on Tuesday at 7pm.
Allen has got lots of negative comments about the changes he’s brought to his approach to the game but the simple fact is that it works. In the last 18 months he has won 6 events . Ok, one of those is the Shoot-out, but still … it can’t be denied that the results have been coming thick and fast and that vindicates the changes he’s made.
One of the reasons I don’t appreciate the Tour Championship that much is because it’s an ITV event and Eurosport isn’t showing this one. The only option for me, living in Greece, is Matchroom Live. It’s not free and in the past the quality of their service has often been awful, but yesterday it worked well all day, I’ll give them that. Still, it means that if, for some reason, I can’t watch a match when it’s “live”, then I can’t watch it at all. In this event, all matches feature top “in form” players and are interesting. It would be nice to be able to watch them all… You will tell me that a few years back we never were able to watch everything, or watch “past” matches unless we recorded them, and that’s true but now is… now and the technology is there to allow it.
Reanne Evans and Luca Brecel have won the 2024 Mixed Doubles event yesterday evening. They beat Rebecca Kenna and Mark Selby in the final. Here is the report by WST:
EVANS AND BRECEL CROWNED IN MANCHESTER
Reanne Evans and Luca Brecel combined to capture the World Mixed Doubles title, beating Mark Selby and Rebecca Kenna 4-2 in the final at Manchester Central.
The duo were this year’s most decorated pair, with Evans having 12 Women’s World Championship titles to her name and Brecel being the current World Champion. However, they only clinched their place in the final courtesy of taking the final frame this afternoon, when they lost 3-1 to Selby and Kenna.
It’s second time lucky for Evans, who was paired with seven-time Crucible king Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2022. On that occasion they missed out on a place in the final by a single frame.
Brecel’s hit and miss season thus far has seen him miss out on next week’s Players Series finale, the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship. However, his first piece of silverware of the season will act as a welcome boost heading into the defence of his World Championship title.
Selby and Kenna suffer defeat in the final for a second consecutive season. They were runners-up to Neil Robertson and Mink Nutcharut last time around.
It was Brecel who got this evening’s final up and running with a break of 57 to take the opener. They then added the second to lead 2-0.
Selby had an opportunity to take the third and reduce their arrears, but missed a straightforward final blue. Eventually, he was given another chance and did make it 2-1. That was followed up by a run of 67 by the Leicester cueman to restore parity.
Brecel and Evans moved 3-2 ahead by taking the fifth, before a contribution of 59 from the Belgian in the sixth gave them the title.
“It’s taken 22 years to win a final on television. I know Luca carried me a little bit, but I’ve been playing a long time and it is fantastic to lift a trophy and play in a final like this, alongside all of these great players. The crowd have been fantastic and I’ve really enjoyed myself.”
Reanne Evans
12-time Women’s World Champion
Evans added: “Playing in these sort of events and getting the recognition that the women deserve and the support from these top players is only going to help the women and help the game. Hopefully there is a lot more to come. Bigger and better and always hoping and believing in the future.”
Brecel said: “It was a special occasion to play in this tournament. I was looking forward to it as soon as I knew I was in it. I always felt we had a good chance to win it because we are a really strong team. If we played a bit closer to our normal standards we could have made it a bit easier for ourselves.”
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
The standard wasn’t always the highest but that is to be expected as the players are not used to this type of format and there is additional pressure because they feel additional responsibility: They don’t want to let their partner down. The crowd was decent all along. Stephen Hendry was surprisingly full of compliments for the women who certainly played their part in this event. In general, their tactical nous was good, but their scoring power is not yet quite at the required level.
The venue looks nice and the cuezone in particular benefitted from a special effort by WST to make it bigger and better.
Picture by Matt Huart
Matt Huart wasn’t on duty … so he took loads of pictures and shared them on the Women Snooker Facebook page. Well worth a look if you can. They are awesome!
Congratulations Reanne and Luca!
Finally … with Luca in action in the final, there was of course a special interest from the Belgian snooker fans. Amongst them, the owner of the famous Brussel’s Hair Salon “Alexandre de Paris”. I heard that “Alexandre” (not his real name) was so thrilled by Luca and Reanne’s win that he contacted WST and offered his services for next season event. He’s willing to come “on site” to offer every player an original haircut with their hair dyed in the colour of their team. Asked about Luca, he said: “I know that Luca poses a particular challenge, but I like a good challenge! I will be creative!”
Ronnie O'Sullivan 