China’s wait for snooker world champion goes on as ‘female Ding’ Bai Yulu loses women’s final
- Teenager is beaten to the crown by Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan of Thailand as her dream run ends at the last hurdle
- 12-time winner Reanne Evans calls tournament’s £8,000 (US$9,600) winner’s cheque ‘disgusting’ compared with £500,000 for men’s champion
The teenager was beaten 6-3 in the final in Bangkok on Saturday by Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan of Thailand, who also looked an unlikely winner at the outset before, like Bai, picking off some illustrious names.
Neither finalist featured on the event poster, but between them they removed several of those who did, with 19-year-old Bai, on her tournament debut, stunning 12-time winner Reanne Evans 5-3 and Siripaporn knocking out her compatriot and reigning world champion Mink Nutcharut 5-2 in the semi-finals.
Their showdown began with Bai – the first mainland Chinese player to reach the final, although Hong Kong’s Ng On-yee is already a three-time winner – taking a 2-0 lead.
After her opponent brought it back to 2-2, Bai won the next to lead at the midsession interval. She was overhauled, however, as Siripaporn took four frames in a row to clinch the title and with it a wild card for the men’s World Snooker Tour.
Bai was already a winner of the International Billiards Snooker Federation World Under-21 Championship and caused a major stir in her opening group match by delivering a 127 break, the highest in the tournament’s history.
She cruised through the remaining rounds before coming back from 3-1 down against Evans, taking four frames in a row to edge a marathon encounter.
Evans later slammed the tournament’s prize fund, calling the champion’s £8,000 (US$9,600) cheque “disgusting”, given that the men’s winner collects £500,000 (US$600,000).
“I have played in invitation events where the money just for turning up is more than what the [women’s] world champion gets – and I think that is disgusting, really,” she told the Mirror. “I just wish someone would put a proper women’s tour on and make us professional.”
Bai, who was just one year old when Evans won her first global championship, in 2005, has devoted her life to the baize since she was 10, putting in eight to 10 hours of practice a day and urged on by her father, a devoted snooker fan.
China’s wait for a world champion goes on after Yan Bingtao’s narrow loss
China has waited in vain for a men’s world champion, with Ding having gone closest when he lost the 2016 Crucible final 18-14 to Mark Selby. Saturday saw Bai get one frame closer, and those around her have high hopes of her having a similar impact on her sport.
“My coach wants me to become the female Ding, but I dare not think too much about it, otherwise it will be too much pressure,” Bai once said.
In the Challenge Cup, for those who did not advance beyond the group stage, Hong Kong’s Fong Mei-mei defeated two Indian players, Ishika Shah and Vidya Viswanathan Pillai, before being defeated in the semi-finals by Waratthanun Sukritthanes of Thailand, who lost the final to India’s Amee Kamani 3-0.
