World Women’s Snooker Championship: Hong Kong’s Ng On-yee in shock exit but Chinese teen Bai Yulu shines
- Three-time winner Ng suffers her worst result in the event in 11 years, with last-16 loss
- Debutant Bai records the tournament’s highest ever break during her stunning run to the latter stages
Ng On-yee’s hopes of winning the World Women’s Snooker Championship for a fourth time ended early as she crashed out in the round of 16 in Bangkok, but mainland Chinese teenager Bai Yulu made a name for herself in her debut appearance.
Bai recorded the tournament’s highest ever break this week on her way to Friday’s semi-finals, where she took on Reanne Evans of England.
The 19-year-old caused a major stir by compiling a 127 break in her opening group match against Amee Kamani of India, beating the previous best of 125 that was set by Kelly Fisher of England in 2003.
She saw off Anupama Ramachandran, also of India, 4-0 in the last 16 before cruising past England’s Maria Catalano in the quarterfinals, also by a 4-0 margin.
Hong Kong’s star player Ng was leading comfortably over Bayarsaikhan Narantuya of Mongolia in their round-of-16 encounter and looked set for a quarter-final spot after taking the first two frames.
But once the Mongolian fought back, Ng crumbled and lost her momentum as Narantuya took the next four frames to win 4-2.
It was Ng’s worst result in the World Championship since she lost to compatriot Yu Ching-ching at the same stage in 2012. She made it to all of the finals from 2014 to 2018, winning three of them, in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
And with the women’s world champion to be awarded a wild card for next season in the men’s World Snooker Tour, Ng felt under heavy pressure, according to her coach Alan Wong.
Both Ng and Evans, who has a record 12 women’s world titles, were awarded two-year wild cards in 2021, which will end in May after the completion of the men’s World Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield.
“This women’s world event was very important to Ng and it seems her performance has been severely affected,” Wong said. “We don’t think she has any problem with her technical skills but mentally she has been under great pressure to perform. This may explain why she fell short against a player against whom she should have won easily.”
Another Hong Kong player, Ho Yee-ki, also exited in the last 16, losing 4-1 to Catalano.
Hong Kong head coach Wayne Griffiths could not hide his disappointment.
“This World Championship has been a disappointment in terms of results and performances,” he said. “The team have worked hard and prepared well, but couldn’t produce their best this week, and no player has reached their target.
“When you have enjoyed many years of unbroken success, these setbacks are tough.”
Griffith also attributed the results to the improvements made by other Asian countries, but remained upbeat about the future.
“There is no doubt that the Asian countries are turning out higher-quality players,” he said. “Hong Kong is competing with places that have five or six times our population, or 100 times more if we look at India and mainland China.
“We need to be very smart about how we maintain parity or exceed their challenge, but we have a great team of players and coaches, all tighter as a result of adversity, and we are very confident that we will return to winning ways.”
This result also means that Ng, who sits at No 3 in the world rankings, will not be able to catch second-placed Evans or top-ranked Mink Nutcharut of Thailand, the defending world champion, who faced Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan in the other semi-final.
The final takes place on Saturday.
