WORLD OPEN DAY ONE ROUNDUP: BULLET FIRES PAST PHETMALAIKUL
World Champion Luca Brecel proclaimed that his hunger was back after scoring an emphatic 5-1 win over Manasawin Phetmalaikul at the Huading Nylon World Open in Yushan.
The Belgian Bullet shot to the top of the snooker stratosphere last May with a stunning victory at the World Championship, an event he admitted he did minimal work for on the practice table.
Since then Brecel’s form has been erratic, other than making two finals at the invitational Shanghai Masters and Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker. He lost both of those title matches to Ronnie O’Sullivan.
With the defence of this world title coming quickly round the corner next month, he is now determined to put the hours in and hit top form.
Today’s match saw Brecel, who must win the event to qualify for the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship, fire in breaks of 131, 100 and 94 on his way to victory. Afterwards he proclaimed that he is back to full confidence. Next up he faces Oliver Brown.
“If anything, I feel even better than last year at the World Championship. I don’t know where it has come from. Obviously I have been working hard on my game, mentally and on the table, but I didn’t expect it to happen that fast. I feel really confident and good about my game.”
Luca Brecel
World Champion
Brecel added: “I am practising more, doing the right stuff and mentally I’ve been more conscious on the table, more focussed with more concentration. I feel really good and that every time I go to the table I fancy a good performance. I am in a good place.
“I am just more hungry than ever before in my career. I’ve always had struggles with motivation and getting up for games. That hasn’t been a problem in the last few weeks. I don’t want to make the same mistakes as the past. I’ve learned a lot this year.”
INSPIRED BRECEL REGAINS CONFIDENCE
Judd Trump got his quest for a fifth ranking title of the season underway with a 5-2 defeat of Malaysia’s Rory Thor.
Trump and O’Sullivan have been the two standout players on the tour this season and both will be among the favourites to capture the title this week, with O’Sullivan taking to the baize tomorrow.
The Ace in the Pack top scored with 130 in today’s tie and will now face fellow Englishman Sanderson Lam.
Home hero Ding Junhui secured his progression with a 5-3 win over Zak Surety, who made his maiden career 147 despite defeat.
Ding himself crafted breaks of 54, 122, 94 and 77 during the encounter. He now faces Chinese compatriot Lyu Hongyu.
Welshman Daniel Wells pulled off a shock 5-3 win over world number three Mark Allen, while 2005 World Champion Shaun Murphy battled past Xu Si 5-3.
Here is Zak’s 147 shared by ES on on their YouTube channel
Mark Allen’s defeat was, of course, the surprise of the day. However probably just as surprising was the double win by 16 years old wildcard Wang Xinbo who sent Matt Selt packing.
With the EBSA event also underway, I must confess that I didn’t see much more than Ding’s and Judd’s matches. Judd didn’t particularly impress me and Thor didn’t play as well as he can and didn’t have much luck either. But, of course, for Judd it was a first match and a possible banana skin, for Thor it was unfamiliar territory to be on the main table.
As a side note… ahead of the tournament, Ronnie was inducted into the Billiards Museum Hall of fame. He wasn’t the only one. From what I understood from social media posts, there were eight or nine billiards players of various disciplines honoured, amongst them Allison Fisher and Pankaj Advani.
Bai Yulu has won the 2024 Women Snooker World Championship
She beat Mink Nucharut by 6-5 in a tense high quality final. This means that she will be offered a main Tour card for the 2024/25 season. Mink will get one as well as she’s guaranteed to finish the season as Women’s Snooker number 1. In many ways this is the best possible outcome from allegedly the best ever Women Snooker World Championship.
Congratulations Bai Yulu!
Bai Yulu 2024 Women Snooker World Champion AND 2024 Junior Women Snooker World Champion!
Home favourite Bai Yulu beat Mink Nutcharut 6-5 on the final pink to win a dramatic final at the World Women’s Snooker Championship in Dongguan Changping, China.
Victory earns 20-year-old Bai a place on the World Snooker Tour for the first time and she will join the main circuit for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons. Talented Bai reached the final last year before losing to Baipat Siripaporn, and has now clinched her maiden world title.
Women’s world number one Nutcharut, who lifted this trophy in 2022, had not dropped a single frame in the tournament until the final. Bai took an early 3-1 lead, helped by a break of 122 which was the highest of the tournament and highest ever in the World Women’s Championship final. Thailand’s Nutcharut hit back to take three in a row with a top run of 62 to lead 4-3, before Bai knocked in 97 and 75 to edge 5-4 ahead. Nutcharut then took frame ten on the colours to set up the decider.
Both players had chances and it came down to the colours – Nutcharut leading 46-43 when she failed to gain position on the brown. Bai potted brown and blue to lead 52-46 during a safety battle on the pink. Trapped in a snooker, Nutcharut hit the pink but left her opponent a chance, and Bai slotted it into a baulk corner to clinch the Mandy Fisher Trophy.
It has been an impressive rise to the top from Bai, who had never competed on the women’s tour before last year’s World Championship. She went on to win her first women’s ranking event at the British Open in May last year, beating Reanne Evans in the final.
Bail also won the world under-21 title earlier in the week, beating Narucha Phoemphul in the final.
Eve of the 2024 World Open in Yushan … Ronnie honoured
As always in China, the players are made to feel very welcome with an opening ceremony and a red carpet walk, but this time, Ronnie was particularly honoured as he was inducted in the World Billiards Museum Hall of Fame
Here is a short video of that event shared by Roger Leighton on Youtube
And there were some pictures shared on weibo, of the red carpet walk, the induction ceremony and the opening ceremony
Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh, Mohamed Shehab from the United Arab Emirates and Welshman Duane Jones all came through the WPBSA Q Tour Global Play-Offs to earn a place on the World Snooker Tour for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons.
The 2023/24 WPBSA Q Tour season saw the tour go global for the first time by incorporating series’ in the Middle East, Americas and Asia-Pacific region alongside the UK/Europe series which has been held since 2021/22. Cueists from across the globe have been competing all year to earn a coveted spot in the Global Play-Off. The season’s best 24 players came together in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina this week, split into three sections of eight.
Sarkhosh beat Iulian Boiko 10-8 in the final of his section and will turn pro for the first time, joining fellow Iranian cueman Hossein Vafaei on the circuit next season. “I am happy that snooker is growing in the Middle East and I think it will get better day by day. I know it will be difficult on the professional tour but I am really excited by it,” said Sarkhosh, whose top break in the final was 125.
Shehab, who last played on the pro tour in 2007, saw off Yu Kiu Chang 10-8. He said: “I feel brilliant, I came here prepared for a challenge – not only to secure the tour card, but to represent my country and the Middle East. It is the first time we have had the Q Tour in the Middle East and the top two players have qualified – that’s a clear message that there are good players in the region.“
In an all-Welsh derby, Jones came from 9-7 down to edge out teenager Liam Davies 10-9. “I was gutted when I dropped off the tour and I’ve felt like chucking it in a few times, but snooker is in my blood and it always will be,” said the former German Masters semi-finalist.
Meanwhile, the EBSA European Under-18 Championship title went to Bulcsú Révész, beating Vladislav Gradinari 4-0 in the final. Recent WSF Junior champion Révész lost just a single frame in the knockout stages.
Not many would have predicted that the two “Middle East” Q-Tour laureates would qualify for the main tour, nor that the latter stages of the two junior EBSA events – under-16 and under-18 – would be dominated by mainland Europe players. This once again debunks the claims that the UK has the best amateurs, something that has occasionally been presented by some British fans as a justification for the UK centric organisation of the sport. Also at the EBSA event, the two winners so far are mainland Europe lads AND it’d about time that WST/WPBSA make the effort to spell “foreign” names correctly. It isn’t hard. I corrected the spelling in the above report BTW.
The draw for the 2024 Huading Nylon World Open has been updated, to include the four wild card players.
CLICK HERE for the draw and here for the match schedule. Matches involving the wild cards are:
Sanderson Lam v Gong Chenzhi Wang Xinbo v Wang Xinzhong Jordan Brown v Lan Yuhao
Sam Craigie has withdrawn from the event due to injury. His last-64 opponent was Robert Milkins, who now receives a bye to the last 32.
David Gilbert has also pulled out and his last-64 opponent was Fan Zhengyi, who now receives a bye to the last 32.
Ronnie has already landed in China. A short video was shared on weibo, showing him and Victoris Shi arriving in the country.
And the 2024 Women Snooker World Championship is in its final day…
At the time of writing Bai Yulu has already booked her place in the Final, beating Reanne Evans by 5-3 from 0-3 down… Here are the scores (Bai Yulu first): 29-78(30); 33-69(68); 0-88(76); 62-54; 72-31; 77-70(44); 74(38)-14; 71(71)-33(33).
UPDATE
Mink has beaten On Yee by 5-0 with scores being like this: 6-64; 19-54; 61-66(40); 1-64; 30-67 (although it’s shown the other way around in some pages of the WPBSA scores site). This means that Mink strengthened her position as Women number 1. Should Bai Yulu win tomorrow, both of them would be on the main tour next season and I’d love that.
Nutcharut and Bai to Contest World Championship Final
Mink Nutcharut will meet Bai Yulu in the final of the 2024 World Women’s Snooker Championship after the pair won their semi-final matches on Saturday at the Changping Gymnasium, Dongguan, China.
World number one Nutcharut will contest the title match for the third time in her career and will be looking to lift the Mandy Fisher Trophy for the second time after she stormed to a 5-0 whitewash of Ng On Yee this evening.
The 2022 winner is yet to drop a frame in this year’s event and claimed a surprisingly one-sided encounter against three-time winner Ng to also guarantee that she will remain world number one following the conclusion of this year’s event.
With Nutcharut having comfortably eased into a 2-0 lead, the crucial frame would prove to be the third as with Ng ahead and favourite to reduce her arrears, a classy break of 40 turned the tide in her favour as she took the frame on the black to move further clear. Ng continued to fight, but Nutcharut proved strong and would maintain her perfect record in the tournament.
Earlier in the day, China’s Bai Yulu completed a successful comeback from 3-0 down to defeat England’s Reanne Evans 5-3 for the second successive year in the World Championship semi-finals.
It was 12-time champion Evans who flew out of the traps with breaks of 30, 68 and 76 to lead 3-0, before Bai claimed a crucial fourth ahead of the mid-session interval to gain a foothold in the contest.
The decisive frame would ultimately prove to be the sixth, however, as with Evans having potted a respotted black to seemingly take a 4-2 lead, she could only watch on as the cueball dropped into the middle pocket and the scores were level at 3-3.
From this point it was Bai who would not be stopped and added breaks of 38 and 71 to clinch a dramatic victory and secure her place in the final for the second successive year. Having lost out to Thailand’s Baipat Siripaporn in 2023, the 20-year-old will be looking to go one step further and claim the title and a place on the World Snooker Tour for the first time in her career.
The best of 11 frames final will begin at 12pm CST, with the pair set to clash for the third time this season with Bai having won 3-2 in the quarter-finals of the UK Championship and Mink having triumphed 4-3 in the Albanian Open semi-finals last month.
Victory gives Selby a welcome boost going into the conclusion of the 2023/24 campaign, and also assures him of a place in the Champion of Champions later this year. The world number five lifted his first trophy since the WST Classic a year ago, and lands the BetVictor Championship League crown for the first time.
Having finished second in the group table earlier in the day, Selby saw off Stuart Bingham 3-0 in the semi-finals. O’Connor scored a fine 3-0 success against defending champion John Higgins, setting up a local derby in the final at the Morningside Arena in Leicester.
O’Connor, seeking his first pro title, came from 55-0 down to snatch the opening frame on the colours. Selby hit back with breaks of 74 and 137 to lead 2-1, then got the better of a scrappy fourth frame to secure the silverware.
He said: “Over the two days, I scored when I got chances so overall I’m happy with my game. It was a tough group with great players in. Joe had done brilliantly to get here and he played some great stuff to reach the final today. It was nice to get the win, but if there was anyone who I was to lose to I would have been chuffed for Joe.”
Selby will join Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Allen, Gary Wilson and more in the Champion of Champions. More information on the event including ticket information and venue will be published in due course.
Congratulations Mark Selby!
It’s not been a great season so far for Mark and quite understandably so considering what is family is going through and Vikki’s illness. I’m happy for Mark and I sincerely hope that everything will be fine soon for the whole family. The surprise man of the event though has been Joe O’Connor and, IMO, it’s only a matter of time before he wins a professional tournament.
Valdislav Gradinari in the 2024 Under-16 EBSA Champion
The 2024 EBSA tournaments are currently underway in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Under-16 competition already concluded with Vladislav Gradinari beating Riley Powell in the final.
Congratulations Vladislav!
Here are some images shared by WPBSA on X (Twitter)
Bai Yulu has won the 2024 Under-21 Women Snooker World Championship
She defeated Narucha Phoemphul from Thailand by 3-0 to win the World Women’s Under-21 Snooker Championship for the first time!
Congratulations Bai Yulu!
WWS on X (Twitter) posted this:
The 20-year-old hit breaks of 57 and 35 to earn victory and claim the biggest Under-21 crown in women’s snooker. Bai spoke with national and international media during her post-match media conference, with the trophy presentation to take place on Sunday alongside the main event closing ceremony.
Tessa Davidson has won the 2024 Seniors Women World Championship
This was shared by WWS on X (Twitter)
Congratulations to England’s Tessa Davidson who has defeated Han Fang 3-1 to win the World Women’s Seniors Snooker Championship for the second time in three years in Dongguan Changping. The trophy presentation will take place as part of the main ceremony.
The event marked a milestone for the Q Tour as it held it’s first event in South America in Brazil’s second-largest city.
A total of 37 South American cueists embarked on the event, which is the first to count towards the new season of Q Tour Americas events. They were split into eight groups, with both finalists as well as former professional Itaro Santos storming through this phase with a clean sweep of victories.
Santos fell to defeat in the first knockout, losing 3-1 to Gabriel Callas Andrade, but back-to-back whitewash victories saw fellow former professional Figueiredo comfortably book his place in the semi-finals – where he defeated Fabio Anderson Luersen 4-1 to reach the title match.
There he would meet fellow Brazilian Moreira, who had come through a hard-fought quarter-final contest against Claudio Menechini in a deciding frame before securing a much more comfortable win in the semi-final by beating Andrade without dropping a frame.
The experience of the 46-year-old Figueiredo, who has featured on the World Snooker Tour on numerous occasions since 2010, showed in the final as he lost just a single frame in storming to a dominant 5-1 victory and securing the first Q Tour crown of the 2024/25 season as a result.
We held our Players Briefing at the CBSA Guangdong Academy ahead of the start of the 2024 World Women’s Snooker Championship.
The action gets underway in Dongguan Changping at 10am CST with KO matches from the Under-21/Seniors tournaments, alongside group stage matches from the main competition.
Live streaming from Table 1 is planned with confirmation of how you can watch to follow.
The 2024 Women Snooker World Championship starts tomorrow, and Matt Huart has shared more images of the venue as rigging was in progress and of the nearly ready arena. I have to say that it looks fantastic.
In my previous post I erroneously wrote that the event was to be held at Bai Yulu’s club. This is what I had understood when it was first announced that the event would be held in Dongguan, China. Bai Yulu is indeed from Dongguan, but this is a bespoke venue at the Changping Gymnasium. Thank you, Matt Huart, for spotting the mistake and providing the correct information. Thank you as well for allowing me to share the photos.
This is a proper venue, not a club. Women events have been held in some fantastic clubs, but this is something else and I believe that it is an important step towards giving this tour a more “professional” image. The people in charge in recent years, and Mandy Fisher over decades, have always been “professional”, doing miracles with very little means. But image matters, and this is sending a powerful message that the women’s game is taken 100% seriously and deserves respect and proper exposure.
The event is the first to count towards the 2024/25 Q Tour Americas ranking list, with further events for the new season to be announced in due course.
A total of 37 cueists from Brazil will be competing in the event, including former World Snooker Tour professionals Igor Figueiredo and Itaro Santos.
The event is at the semi-finals stage and Igor Figueiredo is till to lose a frame…
