Thailand’s Mink Nutcharut hit back from 1-3 down to defeat world champion Bai Yulu 4-3 in a thrilling finale at the WSF Women’s Championship in Saïdia, Morocco.
Victory for the 25-year-old represents her second world ranking title win following her win at the Australian Women’s Open last October and continues a remarkable streak that has now see Mink lift the first title of the calendar year during each of the previous four years (2022-2025).
The title is her ninth world ranking event win overall, which sees her join an illustrious list of the top 10 most successful players of all-time on the World Women’s Snooker Tour, alongside Reanne Evans, Allison Fisher, Kelly Fisher, Karen Corr, Stacey Hillyard, Ng On Yee and Maria Catalano, equalling the tally of both Lynette Horburgh and Mandy Fisher.
For beaten finalist Bai, the 21-year-old can take the consolation of a new career-high world ranking position of number three, as she moves above England’s Reanne Evans for the first time. The Chinese star has now reached six finals from her eight tournaents contested to date, winning three.
Following a week of snooker in Saïdia the final came down to a repeat of last season’s World Championship final, which had seen Bai claim a memorable triumph 6-5 on the final pink.
The reigning world champion player made the stronger start in their latest encounter as she hit breaks of 49, 41 and 32 on her way to a 2-0 lead, before the next two frames were shared as Bai moved to within one of claiming her second trophy of the season following victory at the UK Championship.
World number one Mink had other ideas, however, as she produced her highest break of the match with a run of 65 to reduce her arrears to one frame, before she added the next to force a seventh and deciding-frame.
Both players had opportunities but it was Mink who took an early lead with a run of 36, before a nerveless long pot on the brown, followed by blue and pink ultimately proved to be enough to avenge her defeat in Dongguan Changping last March.
Mink also hit the highest break of the event with her run of 80 during the round robin group stages, eclipsing the maximum attempt of Bai which ended on 73 during her quarter-final win against Narucha Phoemphul.
CHALLENGE CUP
The Challenge Cup tournament for players who did not reach the quarter-finals was won by Hind Bennani of Morocco, who defeated Yasmine Eythrib 2-0 to lift her first WWS Tour title.
Bennai, who has previously competed at the UK Championship and Belgian Open tournanents, did not drop a frame as she saw off Soukaina Alouane, former African Games winner Yousra Matine and finally Eythrib on Wednesday to lift the trophy.
World Women’s Snooker would like to thank everyone who contributed to a historic first-ever world ranking tournament in Africa, including the World Snooker Federation, Morocco Snooker and the spectacular Radisson Blu venue
Leone Crowley defeated Kaylan Patel 5-0 in the final of the 2025 WSF Junior Championship to earn the title and a two-year World Snooker Tour (WST) tour card.
Crowley, from Cork, came through an international field of 57 cueists from 22 countries to win the biggest title of his career to date.
The 18-year-old makes history as the first ever player from the Republic of Ireland to win the prestigious title and earns professional status for the first time in his career.
He made an impressive start to the tournament by topping his group with a clean sweep of victories and just two frames dropped en route to the knockout stages.
This fine form continued as Crowley, who regularly practises at Mark Allen’s snooker camp in Belfast, whitewashed Scotland’s Ayaan Iqbal before showing his battling qualities to overcome Poland’s Michal Szubarczyk in a deciding frame having trailed 3-2.
His place in the title match was secured by overcoming Amaan Iqbal 4-1 in a hard fought contest that last for almost four hours on Wednesday evening.
There he faced England’s Patel, who was aiming to become only the second Englishman after Stan Moody to lift the WSF Junior Championship crown.
Following a trio of group stage victories, Patel had defeated fellow countryman Adam Abbas (4-1) and O’Shay Scott (4-1) to reach the last eight.
He looked certain of a semi-final place when he stormed into a 3-0 lead over Riley Powell, but the Welshman rallied to win three frames in a row and force a decider. Patel, however, held his nerve in the final frame to compile a break of 50 before earning his final place with an impressive 4-0 defeat of the highly-rated Zhou Jinhao from China.
Unfortunately for Patel, he was unable to repeat this form in the title match and Crowley raced into a 4-0 lead at the mid-session interval in relatively comfortable fashion despite not compiling a half-century break.
Crowley kept his cool after the break and took the fifth and decisive frame by a scoreline of 73-24 to complete the biggest victory of his life.
“I feel very good. I have been playing the game for the last ten years and I’ve put a lot of hard work into this so I am just happy to have made my Dad proud and myself too. My family back home were all watching it so I want to thank them for all the support” said Crowley.
“I 100% believed that this was possible – if you don’t believe then you’re not going to achieve your goals. I was feeling good coming into the game. It was scrappy but there was some good safety play and I felt confident when I was in front that I would get over the line eventually.”
Looking ahead to the next two years, Crowley said: “I want to gain experience and hopefully I can stay on the tour. I don’t want to say too much but hopefully, after those two years, I will stay on – that’s the goal. My hero is Judd Trump, so I would like to play him.”
The WSF Open Championship takes place on 24 January – 1 February and can be watched live on the WPBSA YouTube channel and WSF Facebook page.
Congratulations to the Winners!
I’m happy that Crowley won rather than Patel simply because I believe that 16 is far too young to be on Tour. It’s such a competitive and brutal environment and I don’t think that many 16 years old are psychologically and emotionally equipped to deal with the pressure it generates and the demands of professional sports.
World number one Judd Trump made a trio of centuries as he beat Joe O’Connor 3-0 in the final of Group Six of BetVictor Championship League Snooker Invitational to secure a place in next month’s Winners’ Group.
Trump will join Hossein Vafaei, Si Jiahui, Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby, Matthew Selt and one more player in the Winner’s Group in February when the title and a place in the 2025 Champion of Champions will be at stake.
O’Connor finished top of the group phase with six wins out of six, then edged out Noppon Saengkham 3-2 in the semi-finals. Trump won four of his six group games before beating David Gilbert 3-1 in the semis. Breaks of 113, 103 and 101 saw Trump dominate the final.
Having made 16 centuries in two groups this week, Trump has moved his tally for 2024/25 to 65, raising his hopes of making 100 tons in the season. The first player to achieve that will earn a £100,000 bonus. Jak Jones, meanwhile, has made an incredible 32 centuries in this event, extending his record for the most tons made in a single tournament. And he’ll look to add to that tally in Group Seven.
Jack Lisowski became the second player in as many days to miss the final black when he had the chance to make a 147. His break came in the opening frame of his group match against Jones, and Lisowski ran out of position from pink to black then failed to pot a near-impossible thin cut to a top corner. O’Connor had also missed the black on 140 on Wednesday.
Jones, O’Connor, Gilbert and Saengkham advance to Group Seven on Friday and Saturday, where they will join Xiao Guodong, Zhou Yuelong and Ricky Walden.
2025 German Masters – Withdrawals galore
O’SULLIVAN, DING, HE AND DALE WITHDRAW FROM MACHINESEEKER GERMAN MASTERS
Ronnie O’Sullivan has withdrawn from next week’s Machineseeker German Masters due to medical reasons.
O’Sullivan was due to play Dylan Emery in his opening match. Emery will now receive a bye to the last 32.
Ding Junhui has also pulled out of the event. He was due to face Ross Muir, who receives a bye to the last 32.
He Guoqiang has withdrawn for medical reasons. He was due to face Ali Carter, who receives a bye to the last 32.
Dominic Dale has pulled out. He was due to face Tom Ford, who receives a bye to the last 32.
The event runs from January 27th to February 2nd at the Tempodrom in Berlin.
It’s a real shame for the event, the only one remaining played in mainland Europe. I’ surprised by Dale withdrawal as WST had recently posted a piece where Dominic explained how he was looking forward to the event. No reason has been given for his withdrawal, nor for Ding’s withdrawal.
As always when Ronnie withdraws, some fans doubts his motives. But Ronnie has now withdrawn from the exhibition he was due to play in Finland with John Higgins…. and that’s a serious concern. Clearly something is not right and all I can wish is for him to get better soon and sort out whatever needs to be sorted in his life, if that is the underlying problem.
The week of exhibitions in Macau concluded yesterday, and, in start contrast with the previous set of exhibition matches in Chinese territory, this one was a huge success for Ronnie who won all his 5 matches!
Indeed he beat both Kyren Wilson by 5-2 and Stuart Bingham by 5-1 on the last day of the event.
I did enjoy the event, and not just because Ronnie won his matches, but because he played well and looked much happier than he was early in the season. All his matches were refereed by women which, I’m sure, was to his liking. I was particularly happy to see Zhou Ying in action again.
And to conclude some images … found by Kalacs of course. THANK YOU KALACS !
There were more rumours on social media in recent days regarding an alleged “split tour”. As so often, the reality is different, there is no intention by Jason Francis, or anyone else, to create a split tour. What there IS though is a series of high profile exhibition tournaments. Jason himself confirmed this to me: eight of the top players have agreed to play in these events.
Ronnie O’Sullivan the headline act in ‘exciting’ new snooker project
Phil Haigh
Ronnie O’Sullivan is the headline act for a planned new series of snooker events (Picture: Getty Images)
Eight players have agreed to play in a series of new snooker events, with Ronnie O’Sullivan leading a heavyweight line-up of world champions.
Four two-day events have been arranged for next year, labelled the Snooker 900 Grand Slam, which hope to feature the Rocket, current world champ Kyren Wilson, Mark Williams, John Higgins, Neil Robertson, Luca Brecel, Shaun Murphy and Reanne Evans
The players are believed to have agreed to the new venture, but the independent promoters are in talks with World Snooker Tour as professional players need permission to appear in non-sanctioned TV events. By the terms of the renegotiated players’ contract, if non-sanctioned events are taking place when WST tournaments are not being played then there is no issue, but any clashes cause a problem. Players have been given permission to play in two of the four events, but as two clash with WST tournaments then there remains a stumbling block and discussions continue.
It is understood that Channel 4 is the potential broadcaster for the series, which is planned to run into June and July, in what would be a major move into the sport for the station. The first of the events – the brainchild of promoter Jason Francis – is planned for 12-13 April in London and Murphy hopes to be lining up for it.
Asked about rumours of the new events on his onefourseven podcast, the 2005 world champion said: ‘It is true. I’m delighted to be asked, but I don’t know very much about it. I know that Jason was planning to put on four two-day events. I had no idea until I saw the list on social media myself who else was asked to play in it.
‘Just happy to play and looking forward to these opportunities. As luck would have it, two of those dates do clash with potential events in the 25/26 calendar, so I think only two of them so far have been granted permission.
‘Excited about it. I think competition is good. I think players being allowed to play and ply their trade…I personally think that as a professional snooker player, as a self-employed tradesperson I should be able to play snooker wherever and whenever I want. That’s my own personal view.
‘So I see this as a real positive step that these events are going to be put on and players are going to be able to ply their trade, put balls in pockets, put smiles on faces and entertain people who are wanting to watch us.’
The dates of 12-13 April 2025 would by during World Championship qualifying, and just the week before the main event begins at the Crucible.
Details on venues of the events and further details are to be confirmed.
World Snooker Tour and Channel 4 both declined to comment.
From what I heard, four events are currently scheduled. Two would happen at a times when no WST events are currently planned but the two others could clash with WST events albeit none where the top players involved would be supposed to participate. As Shaun said – not for the first time – players are self-employed and should be free to play in whatever they see fit, even more so when themselves are not involved in the “clashing” WST events.
Ronnie and John Higgins played one last exhibition yesterday evening in Sofia. Tomorrow the 2024/25 snooker season will actually begin with its first ranking event, the 2024 Ranking Championship League Snooker.
This time it was John Higgins who prevailed by 5-4. Despite Ronnie’s defeat, I thoroughly enjoyed the match. It was very high quality and played in great spirit in front of a huge crowd.
The show was streamed and is now available on YouTube:
Big, big thanks as ever to Kalacs, the best media hunter on the planet!
Yesterday evening was the third and last night of exhibitions in Tampere. Gary Wison won the match by 6-5 but going by comments on social media both players played very well on the night. here is what a fan had to say on Twitter/X: “Gary Wilson beat Ronnie in 2 of their 3 matches. Both were playing well Ronnie had a 147 attempt to go 5-3 up but missed a red at 72 and Wilson cleared up with 73. Then Wilson nearly had a 147 but missed at 112. Ronnie forced a decider with 93 but Wilson won it with a century.”
Originally, only two nights had been scheduled, but faced with a huge demand, the organisers added a third “leg”. It was sold out in no time at all.
Here are some images shared on social media …
And short videos
Ronnie’s introduction
Ronnie’s interview
I would definitely love to have a ranking event in Finland, or anywhere in mainland Europe actually. Break the UK centric nature of the tour!
Overview of the arena. Definitely not for the ones suffering with fear of heights as Jason Francis commented
Ronnie O’Sullivan, 48, tells Yle about his difficulties – still runs ten to 42 minutes, record breaking Cooper pace
A superstar’s 10-kilometer road running record is hard currency for a basic fitness enthusiast.
Today’s most successful snooker player, Ronnie O’Sullivan, appeared for the first time in Finland on Monday. Photo: Mikko Ahmajärvi / Yle
English snooker superstar Ronnie O’Sullivan is known not only as the best stick player of all time, but also for his love of jogging.
However, it was no mean feat when O’Sullivan clocked 34:54 in a 10-kilometer road race in Caen, France in 2008. He was 32 years old at the time.
In 2008, the time would have taken O’Sullivan to 40th place in the Finnish statistics, if the sample is limited to runners aged 32 and older. Last year, the ranking would have been 45th in that age statistic.
But a lot has happened in 16 years.
“I have suffered from so many injuries that my knees and legs can’t hold up like before. Nowadays, I would run ten in 42 minutes” 48-year-old O’Sullivan estimated for Yle Urheilu on Monday evening.
O’Sullivan agreed to give a short interview when the exhibition match against compatriot Gary Wilson ended in Tampere-talo. O’Sullivan won the match 6–3 and entertained the audience by, among other things, bagging a hitting streak of over 120 points in the last set.
After the match, it was already close to midnight, and the star wanted to go to the hotel as quickly as possible. It had been a long day, as O’Sullivan had only flown to Finland in the morning.
When it comes to O’Sullivan’s calendar, we talk about long work weeks.
“We spent 19 days in China on a screening tour that included performances in eight different cities. It meant five flights and three bullet trains in China alone” O’Sullivan’s manager Jason Francis told Yle.
The two had time to spend a day in England before flying to Finland, where O’Sullivan will play three exhibition matches . After Wednesday’s show, there is a flight to Bulgaria, where the tour will continue for the rest of the week.
Wilson and O’Sullivan in action at the Tampere building. Photo: Mikko Ahmajärvi / Yle
To make such a pace possible, O’Sullivan takes care of his physique every day. Get to know Tampere on foot.
“On Tuesday and Wednesday, I plan to run 30-minute runs in the morning. If I run longer, my body gets sore. I haven’t been able to run for three weeks because my knees have felt sore. Age does not come alone” O’Sullivan said, but added after: “In the evenings, I plan to go to the gym before the evening matches. Tour life is like boot camp for me, where I’m like Rocky Balboa” , O’Sullivan said, referring to the legendary boxing character played by actor Sylvester Stallone.
Raised the standard to new heights
O’Sullivan has been playing at the absolute top of snooker for 32 years. Physical training and nutrition have played a significant role, especially in the 2000s, when O’Sullivan has won all seven of his world championships and broken most of the records in the sport.
The importance of healthy lifestyles was emphasized especially in the 2010s, when the number of ranking tournaments affecting the world list doubled from the previous decade.
O’Sullivan has spoken in favor of nutrition and exercise in several of his biographies. In addition, he has been publishing a book devoted solely to this topic in 2019. The older he gets, the more O’Sullivan says he invests in his well-being.
Many top players over the age of 30 have followed the example of O’Sullivan’s professionalism, but in the case of several young snooker players, the master’s teachings have not yet caught on. Numerous snooker professionals have told Yle Urheilu that especially the Chinese youngsters practicing in Sheffield, England, have not understood the level of requirements associated with being a professional today.
Referee Sami Erkkilä watched from the side as O’Sullivan prepared for his shot. Photo: Mikko Ahmajärvi / Yle
O’Sullivan doesn’t want to take a stand on what young players do, but he wants to talk about it through personal examples.
“Over the years, I have only wanted to develop and maximize my potential. I learned by watching others how to take care of diet and fitness. How to get all possible rest out of sleep? And so on. I have learned from the best. I hope that it will carry on in the future“.
Confused Nurmen with Zatopek
After Monday’s exhibition match, O’Sullivan thanked the Finnish audience in his victory speech and praised, among other things, the country’s running history.
When Yle Urheilu asked more about the subject, Lasse Virén’s four Olympic victories from 1972 and 1976 were basic oats for O’Sullivan. On the other hand, a hundred years ago, the information was not quite enough. When Paavo Nurme’s name came up, O’Sullivan interrupted.
“Paavo Nurmi. Wasn’t he Czechoslovakian?” O’Sullivan asked.
The snooker legend had confused Nurme with the folding running legend of the 1940s and 1950s, Emil Zatopek .
Virén’s 10,000 meter record was 27.38.35, Zatopek’s 28.54.2 and Nurmen’s 30.06.2.
O’Sullivan’s top 10 record of 34.54 was set on the road, but if the times were playfully compared to the legends, O’Sullivan would have lost 18 seconds to Virén and 15 seconds to Zatopek per 400m lap on the even pace table. Instead, Nurmi would have been less than 12 seconds faster than O’Sullivan per lap.
O’Sullivan’s top ten pace means he ran three 3400m results in a row in the classic Cooper’s test.
And now Ronnie and Jason are heading to Bulgaria for two more shows, this time with John Higgins. I’m expecting John to win those… if only because whenever I saw him live in exhibitions, he was dead-serious, whilst Ronnie would go for risky exhibition shots…
I remember one instance in particular many years ago. I can’t remember the year, nor the place but I remember what happened that night… There had been a raffle and two fans won a cue and were invited to play against the legends. One guy in his 50th won the first cue and was tasked to play John. He broke off … John cleared. The guy looked rather crest-fallen and Ronnie whispered to John “John … this is an exhibition, let him play a bit“. The other winner was a young girl who had probably never held a cue in her hands. Ronnie tried his best to make her play a bit. He was putting balls over the holes – and I mean right over the holes, as far in the jaws as possible without going in – but for some reason, the girl tended to elevate the butt of the cue and time after time managed to jump the balls out of the jaws of the pockets and send them on cushions. This went on for several minutes and the crowd was in stitches. Eventually a nonplussed Ronnie cleared the table… but it wasn’t quite the end of the story. As we were about to leave the venue, Ronnie was nowhere to be found… His manager – I can’t remember if it was Jason or Django – went to look for him and found him in the arena. Ronnie was trying to jump balls out of pockets the way that girl had done … and cursing because he was failing miserably 😂.
Gary Wilson beat Ronnie by 6-2 yesterday evening in Tampere. He scored heavily: he had breaks of 71, 83, 135, 102.
There was a HUGE crowd in attendance.
Once again huge THANK YOU to Kalacs the best pictures hunter on the Internet!
Ronnie and Robin know each other for many years. Robin became a pro for the first time in 1993 and was on the main tour for 21 seasons in total. Yet, they have played each other only four times, the first occurence being in Thailand in 1997. Ronnie won all four of their encounters.
Jason Francis captured the crowd at the start of the show…
Ronnie arrived in Finland yesterday for a series of three exhibitions in Tampere.
Amusingly the pilot of the Finnair flight that brought him to Finland was also to be the referee on the night!
On this first night, Ronnie played Gary Wilson. Despite a slow start – he went 2-0 down to Gary – Ronnie won the match by 6-3. He finished with a 122, the only century in the match.
Here are some images taken by fans on the evening …
Once again BIG Thanks to Kalacs for their much appreciated contribution!
Ronnie O'Sullivan 