World Women’s Snooker say that it is “set to witness its biggest week for a generation.” They probably couldn’t be more right.
54 players. Only one player can win the World Championship. Defending champion Ng On-yee will be hoping to make it three trophies in a row in the wonderful land of Bangkok, Thailand. Considering the World Championships have gone to Malaysia and Malta, the tour is becoming global by the minute! We also have representatives from ambiguous countries such as Germany, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, and even Singapore! But there are players aiming to make their mark. 11-time champion Reanne Evans is the most obvious threat but there are many other threats waiting to bring their A-game this week.
So what’s been going on? What do we need to think about here?
The Ng – Evans Rivalry
The way Reanne Evans and Ng On-yee are both battering the hell’s bells and buckets of blood out of each other is really interesting. Basically, this rivalry is the biggest story of the entire tour. The pair have pretty much won every main tournament this season and the season before. Both Evans and Ng won every World Championship since Ng broke onto the scene since 2014. This is even excluding Evans’s World Championship domination between 2005 and 2013!
Rather predictably, everyone will be tipping either Evans or On-yee to win the title. If the two players end up being on the opposite sides of the draw, they could very likely meet in the final. They have met in the final twice in 2014 and 2016, with Reanne winning 6-0 and 6-4 respectively. However, if they end up in the same half, that will blow things wide open! Annoyingly, former finalists Maria Catalano, Vidya Pillai, and Emma Bonney are not in this World Championship, so we could see first-time finalists!
Will there be a first-time World Champion?
But wouldn’t it be fantastic for someone to break the monopoly? There is plenty of talent in the draw to do exactly that. We can start with the World No. 3, Rebecca Kenna. Kenna has a fantastic record of the World Women’s Snooker Championship, having reached the semi-finals three times in the row. She has been knocking on the door to win her first tournament for a while, so winning the World title will be huge for her. I recently did an interview with Rebecca. You can read the entire transcript by clicking here.
There are many other experienced tour players in the mix too. Hong Kong’s Ho Yee Ki, who reached three quarter-finals this season. No. 7 Welshwoman Laura Evans and No. 9 German Diana Schuler, who is also the Marketing Director of WWS. 12-time EBSA European Ladies Champion Wendy Jans, who also won the Belgian Championship at least 15 times. Finally, we have Thai Waratthanun Sukritthanes, who is the 2018 World Ladies Amateur Champion.
There are also a number of youngsters, who want to take the sport by storm. Of course, a lot is talked about the strategies of how to attract young girls into snooker and this would be the perfect advert to encourage them. We have 19-year-old Nutcharut Wongharuthai, the young Thai who recently compiled her first maximum. Then we have the England B team of Steph Daughtery and Emma Parker. Both players have made huge strides on the women’s circuit. Not only do they occupy the top two positions in the U-21 ranking list, but they are very high up the main list too. Daughtery is No. 11, but Parker has broken into the Top 10, at No. 10. You can read more about U-21 European Masters Champion Emma Parker by clicking here.
The World Championship Draw
The draw was released on Sunday. You can find the draw here, as well of the list of players competing on a different link, which is here.
Looking at the draw, it does seem like it should be a simple route to the knockout rounds for the Top 12 seeds of the tournament. This is coming from someone, like me, who isn’t completely clued up on every single female player. However, there is the Women’s World Cup at least!
The World Cup was predictably dominated by tour players as two English teams, two Thai teams, Hong Kong A and Rest of the West went through. However, there were India A and Australia B who managed to make it to the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Two players from those two teams, India’s Varshaa Sanjeev and Australia’s Theresa Whitten are in the same group as Wongharuthai. Who knows – maybe that particular group could be The Group of Death? Maybe. Hmm.
At the time of writing, Thailand A (Sukritthanes and Baipat Siripaporn) will play Hong Kong A (On-yee and Ki) in the final. It will be a confidence boost for both teams but especially to On-yee if she wins it. She has already beaten a team of Evans and Kenna along the way.
Who do you think will take home the trophy? This is going to very exciting indeed.
The Women’s World Snooker Championship takes place in Thailand between 20th – 23rd June 2019.
