Hong Kong China’s Onyee Ng has defeated Mink Nutcharut 4-3 following an absorbing final to win the Australian Women’s Open for a record third time at Mounties in Sydney, Australia.
Previously a winner of the event in 2018 and 2023, Ng was in impressive form throughout this year’s event and produced her best snooker when it mattered to earn consecutive deciding frame victories on the final day to claim her 25th ranking event title.
The victory sees her move to within one of Karen Corr on the all-time standings and with her 16th century break of 103, into third position on the all-time leaderboard behind only Reanne Evans and Bai Yulu.
Having progressed from the group stages without the loss of a frame, Ng earned victories against Agnes Kimura and Jessica Woods to reach the last four. She then recovered from 1-3 down against Evans – with a stunning clearance of 103 in the deciding frame – to reach her fifth Sydney final.
There she would await fellow two-time Australian Open champion Mink Nutcharut, who overcame debutant Jazmin Brown, Narucha Phoemphul and Anupama Ramachandran – who made her highest WWS break to date of 98 during the previous round – to reach her first world ranking event final since February.
It was Ng who would make the early running as she moved halfway to victory with breaks of 58, 54 and 40, before a further contribution of 50 in the third frame looked set to see her claim a 3-0 lead.
A missed red, however, would open the door for Thailand’s Mink who produced a steely clearance of 41 to establish a foothold in the match. She followed with a break of 45 in the next frame to draw level, before she again snatched the fifth frame on the colours to move to within a frame of her first ranking title since January 2025.
But there was to be a final twist, as Ng produced a match high break of 81 to force her second deciding frame of the day, which she would largely dominate courtesy of a well-crafted break of 57.
Speaking after the trophy presentations, Ng revealed that as she trailed Evans 1-3 in the quarter-finals, she took inspiration from her Hong Kong China teammate Ka Wai Cheung, who earlier in the day had similarly recovered from the same deficit to defeat Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast.
“I am happy to be back in Australia,” explained Ng. “I missed playing at the event in 2025 as I was drawn to play Judd Trump at the Xian Grand Prix on the same dates and was unable to play the event.”
“Both the semi-final and final today were tight and it will only get tighter as the bar keeps raising.
“Kudos to my fellow teammate Ka Wai Cheung for his comeback against Ronnie O’Sullivan from 1-3 down. In fact, there was really a flashback for me when I was 1-3 down against Reanne today!”
The highest break of the week was a run of 114 compiled by Evans to establish her 3-1 lead against Ng in the semi-final.
Whitten, Phoemphul Claim Titles
There was a first WWS title for Theresa Whitten as the Australian player defeated Agnes Kimura 3-0 to lift the Seniors title on Monday evening.
A semi-finalist a year ago, Whitten defeated Monica Brettle, last year’s champion Carlie Tait and finally Kimura to become the 30th individual winner of a Seniors title on the Tour.
In the Under-21 tournament there was a repeat victory for top ranked Narucha Phoemphul, who defeated New Zealander Jazmin Brown 3-0 to claim her ninth junior title.
The Challenge Cup, for players who did not qualify for the final stages, was won by Dianne Spring, following a 2-1 success against Krystal Aw decided on the final black.
Following a hugely successful four days of snooker which saw the tournament achieve its highest-ever entry to date, WWS would like to thank the Australian Billiards and Snooker Association for its smooth running of the event, as well as Jason Hastings and The Snooker Shop for their continued support.
The WWS Tour continues this Saturday with the staging of the Niche Cues Women’s Snooker Open, from 24-27 October in Malaysia.
Congratulations to all winners!
A bit off topic but I need to say this: I find it absolutely baffling that the women tour, with little financial means, features events around the world, whilst “WORLD snooker” remains largely UK based, notably because all qualifying events – that shouldn’t exist IMO – are played in the UK in rather soulless environments.
And, one last thing. Hats off to “Mounties”. They are a fantastic club and do a great work to promote the events played at their club, with matches shown live on Youtube, making all the players always feel very welcome.
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) has today announced the 2026/27 WPBSA Q Tour Europe series featuring seven tournaments to be held across the continent.
The WPBSA Q Tour Global is an established series of events which provides an elite pathway for snooker players around the world to earn their place on the World Snooker Tour.
Last season saw former Shoot Out semi-finalist Jamie Clarke top the Q Tour Europe rankings, with England’s Craig Steadman, Ashley Hugill and Ashley Carty each qualifying from the overall Q Tour Global Playoffs in Spain.
WPBSA Q Tour Europe
This season’s Q Tour Europe will once again comprise seven events, with four to be held in mainland Europe.
Following last season’s revamped format, the series will once again feature a rolling points-based ranking system with best-of-seven frame matches.
At each event, 64 players will be seeded through to the last 128 stage based on the latest seedings cut-off point. Each tournament will be played under a flat draw, with the remaining players drawn at random.
A total prize fund of £30,000 will be on offer at each of the seven events throughout the campaign.
As in previous seasons, the top ranked player at the end of the campaign will earn a place on the World Snooker Tour. The next 16-ranked players (to include each event champion) will qualify for the season-end Q Tour Global Play-Offs.
The Dates
The provisional dates for this season’s Q Tour Europe are listed below. Click on the event to enter now via WPBSA SnookerScores.
We aim to accommodate all players who wish to enter; however, we do reserve the right to limit entries for each qualifier or to extend events subject to the number of tables available at the club and time available.
Q Tour Global
WPBSA Q Tour Global will continue to incorporate regional Q Tour series’ staged around the world as part of the continued international expansion of Q Tour.
The Q Tour Global will once again continue to include series in the Middle East, Americas and Asia-Pacific regions, alongside the CBSA China Tour.
As part of the WPBSA’s commitment to the international growth of our sport, the leading players from these regional Q Tour events will qualify to compete at the Q Tour Global Play-Offs, alongside players from Q Tour Europe.
Players competing in Q Tour events outside of Europe, must be resident for a minimum six months to be eligible to play in these events.
There is progress … four out of seven of those Q-Tour events are played outside the UK. However, the three remaining events are all played in England… nothing in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Ok, they are all played in excellent clubs that will offer first class conditions, which, of course, is very important. And, also, for players from outside the UK, England is probably the “easiest” UK area to reach from outside the UK, be it by plane, boat or train (Eurostar).
I have been at all of these venues in the past, except for the one in Vienna. They are all very good venues, the conditions should be excellent and the “hospitality” should be great too.
Q Tour Europe 2026/27 – Event 1 | Tournament Information
The draw and schedule for the first event of the 2026/27 WPBSA Q Tour Europe series is now available with 143 players competing at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds, England on 27-30 August 2026.
A total of 25 nations will be represented in the opening event which features an incredible entry number of 143 – higher than any Q Tour event during the 2025/26 season.
The top ranked player at the end of the campaign will earn a two-year World Snooker Tour (WST) tour card, while further places will be available at the Q Tour Global Play-Offs where an additional three tour cards will be on offer.
143 players are in the draw … Drat! they missed the 147 target 😇…
Unless I’m mistaken there is only one woman in the draw… Corina Maracine. She’s a mystery to me that woman. She enters those events every year, for years now and it’s not cheap. Unless my memory fails me, she has never won a match in any of those comps. Maybe she can afford it and she just loves to be at those events, to part of it…
As you probably know the Pink Ribbon is a pro–am snooker tournament that was initially held at the South West Snooker Academy, later renamed the Capital Venue in Gloucester, England.
The first edition was held in 2010. The tournament raises funds for breast cancer charities and has the players all wear pink shirts to show their support. It was created by Paul Mount who had lost his beloved sister, Kay Suzanne to the disease. It was played at the SWSA for ten years. I went to it every year from 2011 to 2019, taking pictures, a lot of them must still be around somewhere on Facebook, and of course on this blog from 2015 until 2018. Ronnie won it in 2015, the only year he participated. It was revived last season and is now played at the Landywood Snooker Club.
It all started last Friday with the “Flyer Event“, won by Riley Powell who beat Peter Devlin in the final.
The “Top Half” amateur event was played on Saturday. Actually this was the “top half” of the main event, up to and included the “last 64” round as the professionals were seeded in the last 32 of the “main event”.
Amateurs entering the Pink Ribbon are granted two bites of the cherry if they so wish. Indeed they have the possibility to play in both halves. 117 amateurs entered the amateur events!
The “main event”, the professional round, was played yesterday. Not all pros won their opening match … some amateurs showed how strong they are! Indeed one of them, Craig Steadman reached the final!
But, eventually, it was a professional, Chris Wakelin who won the event, beating Craig Steadman by 5-3.
Igor Figueriedo Does the Double at 2025 Pan American Snooker Championships
Igor Figueiredo defeated Fabio Anderson Luerson 5-2 to win the 2025 Pan American Open Snooker Championship and earn a two-year World Snooker Tour (WST) tour card.
The continental success means the Brazilian will be nominated for a fourth spell among the professional ranks having first joined the Tour in 2010.
Figueiredo was the dominant force at the Aryan Snooker Club in Sacramento, California as he won both the Open and Seniors Championship titles to earn a two-year WST tour card and qualification for the 2026 World Seniors Snooker Championship – a title he won at the iconic Crucible Theatre last year.
The 47-year-old began the event, which is organised by the Pan American Billiards & Snooker Association (PABSA), with a clean sweep of whitewash victories over fellow countryman Ricardo Bouwman Filho and American cueists Sam McGrath and Pravin Patel.
He dropped just two further frames en route to the semi-finals as he overcame Saif Ibrahim (3-0), Zia Sheik (4-1) and Jason Williams (4-1).
It was an impressive week for Brazilian snooker as the semi-final line-ups for both the Seniors and Open Championships featured all four players from the South American nation.
Three of these – Figueiredo, Luersen and Nelson Rodrigues Morreira – competed in the semi-finals of both events while they were joined by former WST professional Victor Sarkis in the Open competition.
It was Sarkis that faced Figueiredo in the last four but it was the senior man that was in dominant form as he completed yet another whitewash win to move within one victory of the title.
Luersen was his opponent in the title match after he completed a 4-2 defeat of Morreira as he looked to add to the Pan American Seniors Snooker Championship title that he had won 12 months ago.
Figueiredo proved to be too strong once again, however, as he rounded off an unforgettable week by completing a 5-2 victory to secure the title and a WST tour card.
Wether Igor will actually take his tour card remains to be seen though. He didn’t “finish” his last spell on tour and went back to Brazil before his tour card “expired”, explaining that this life abroad was too hard for him and his family. This is understandable. Brazil is too far away for making it possible for Brazilian players to return home just to spend a week-end or indeed any short period of time with their loved ones. The trip is costly and very tiring because the huge time difference. He might however decide to play in the World and Seniors World Championships, as these are “one-offs” in the season and, of course, very special.
I really do hope that he will be able to play in a few events though as he’s very entertaining and (almost) always smiling.
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) has today announced the 2025/26 WPBSA Q Tour Global, which includes a new format and increased money for the Q Tour Europe series.
The Q Tour Global is an established series of events which provides an elite pathway for talented snooker players around the world to earn their place on the World Snooker Tour.
In its second full season, Q Tour Global continued to see records broken with 711 players from 54 countries completing 1542 matches across four continents.
WPBSA Q Tour Europe
This season’s Q Tour Europe will once again comprise seven events, with five to be held in mainland Europe for the first time, and sees significant changes to the format, ranking system and prize money following player feedback.
Prize money more than doubled from the 2024/25 season to £30,000 per event
New seeding structure
Best-of-seven frame matches from the last 128 stage onwards
New points-based ranking system
Regular seeding cut-off dates introduced to make the seedings per event more up to date and relative to the current seasons results
The circuit will benefit from increased prize money investment with £30,000 to be contested at each of the events – more than double the prize fund from the past season.
Following player feedback, there has also been an important change to the tournament seeding structure, which will now see 64 players seeded through to the last 128 stage. Each tournament will be played under a flat draw, with the remaining players drawn at random.
All matches from the last 128 stage onwards will now be played over the best of seven frames and each event will now be played over four days.
A new points-based ranking system will replace the previously used prize money system and points will be on offer in all rounds of each event. There will also be regular seeding cut-off dates to ensure the seedings reflect the current seasons results.
As in previous seasons, the top ranked player at the end of the campaign will earn a place on the World Snooker Tour. The next 16-ranked players (to include each event champion) will qualify for the season-end Q Tour Global Playoff.
The Dates
The provisional dates for this season’s Q Tour Europe are:
WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson said: “We are delighted to announce the new, improved WPBSA Q Tour Europe series for the 2025/26 season. We have listened to the players and consulted with the WPBSA Players Board and we believe these changes are a great start to building for the future not just in Europe but across all the Q Tour Global events.”
“As we move forward, we plan to make further improvements so that WPBSA can establish a truly global secondary tour for our sport. These changes are only the beginning!”
Event Entry
Entry for all seven Q Tour Europe events is now open via WPBSA SnookerScores. Please view each tournament for confirmation of each entry deadline.
We aim to accommodate all players who wish to enter; however, we do reserve the right to limit entries for each qualifier or to extend events subject to the number of tables available at the club and time available.
Q Tour Global
WPBSA Q Tour Global will continue to incorporate regional Q Tour series’ staged around the world as part of the continued international expansion of Q Tour.
The Q Tour Global will once again continue to include series in the Middle East, Americas and Asia-Pacific regions, alongside the CBSA China Tour.
As part of the WPBSA’s commitment to the international growth of our sport, the leading players from these Regional Q Tour events will qualify to compete at the Q Tour Global Playoff, alongside players from Q Tour Europe.
Players competing in Q Tour events outside of Europe, must be resident for a minimum six months to be eligible to play in these events.
This, in my views is great news as five of the seven events are played outside the UK. This is how it should be in the main tour as well, qualifiers included, if snooker really has ambition to be a global sport. It did however trigger negative reaction from British amateurs on social media, complaining about the costs and travels. They were “outraged” when I told them that they have been “privileged” for far too long, that this is, finally, how it should be. To this, of course, they responded that they haven’t be privileged … until I explained how the current structure of the main tour basically forces every non British player to live as expat in the UK, away from their family, which is certainly taxing mentally and emotionally, or to travel back and forth all the time, which is tiring and costly, how communication with the gouverning body is done in English, which for non-UK/Irish players is a foreign language…
I’m sure that I didn’t convince those who feel entitled … but my post was liked by a non British player and the father of another non British player, a young and quite successful one too. The said father left this comment: “It’s about time. Welcome to the world of non UK players 😀”. Exactly that!
Click below for the Q School 2025 Order of Merit. During the 2025/2026 season, should the number of entries in any World Snooker Tour event fall below the required number of entrants, subject to wildcards and commercial agreements, the highest ranked players from the Q School Order of Merit will be used to top up to the required number of entrants. The list was calculated by awarding one point for every frame won. All players who received a bye into Round Two were awarded four points for round one.
The Asian Q-Schools are not included. You will tell me that an Asian “top-up” is unlikely to travel to the UK to play in qualifiers. It would be costly, and would involve a lot of administrative hassle as well. But then again “qualifiers” for Asian events, if any , should be played just before the said events and in locations close to the events’ main venue, and, than “Asian” top ups would make sense.
The 21-year-old from China, who was taking part in a third consecutive World Women’s Snooker Championship final, becomes only the seventh player to lift the Mandy Fisher Trophy on multiple occasions and is the first to defend her title since Ng On Yee achieved the feat in 2018.
The two pre-tournament top seeds met in a repeat of last year’s final in a best-of-11 frame title match contest that was watched by a large crowd at the Changping Gymnasium.
The first two frames of the final were shared between the two cueists, who were each aiming to lift the most prestigious title on the World Women’s Snooker Tour for the second time in their careers.
Mink, the 2022 champion who was competing in her fourth final, managed to pull ahead as she secured a 4-2 advantage with a top break of 54.
Local favourite Bai refused to go down without a fight, however, and rallied with back-to-back frames to restore parity, before going ahead for the first time in the match by taking frame nine with a contribution of 61 to move one away from victory at 5-4.
What ultimately turned out to be the final frame of the match was one that was full of drama as it came down to the last few balls and both players spurned opportunities to win it.
There were gasps from the crowd as Bai missed the ball altogether when attempting a thin pink across the length of the table for victory, only for Mink to go in-off after potting it and looking likely to force a dramatic decider.
After taking a second to compose herself, the Chinese player fired home the pink from distance to complete a momentous victory.
Quality wise, it wasn’t a great match but we shouldn’t be too surprised. Both players wanted it badly and they were certainly feeling very tense. The match was showed on YouTube and at one point there were over 47500 persons watching it (me included 😉). There IS an interest for the women’s game, clearly.
Lewis was in the arena and wrote on social media that, to his estimations, about 700 fans were watching at the venue. Not bad!
