World Titles for Bai Yulu and Tessa Davidson in China
Bai Yulu and Tessa Davidson have secured World Championship titles with victory in the Under-21 and Seniors events respectively at the Changping Gymnasium in Dongguan, China.
For 20-year-old Bai, playing in her hometown, the title represents her first World Women’s Under-21 Championship victory while seniors world number one Davidson has earned the World Women’s Seniors title for the second time in three years.
Both Bai and Davidson also remain in contention for the main World Women’s Championship title as each stormed through their groups with a clean sweep of victories to book their place directly in the last sixteen stage. The World Women’s champion will be crowned on Sunday 17 March and earn a two-year World Snooker Tour card as a result of their sucess.
Hometown Glory for Bai Yulu
China’s Bai Yulu got off to a dream start in her hometown event as she lifted the World Women’s Under-21 Championship title without losing a single frame.
Eleven cueists from five nations entered the Under-21 Championship and we were guaranteed a new name on the trophy with last year’s winner Anupama Ramachandran having since turned overage.
As the highest-ranked entrant in the Under-21 rankings, Bai was seeded directly into the quarter-final stage where she comfortably defeated fellow Chinese player Li Bi Han 3-0 with breaks of 45, 41 and 34 on her way to victory.
The semi-finals was where Bai had fallen in last year’s Under-21 Championship, losing to eventual champion Ramachandran, but there would be no repeat disappointment for the 20-year-old this time around as she compiled a break of 57 in the third frame against Hong Kong China’s Chan Wai Iam to complete back-to-back whitewash victories.
In the final Bai met 18-year-old Narucha Phoemphul.
The Thai teenager had beaten Chinese cueists Mo Tian Tian and Liu Li Zing on her way to final, dropping just a single frame along the way, but proved no match for last year’s World Women’s Championship finalist as Bai kicked off with an impressive break of 69 before charging over the winning line with three more breaks over 30 to secure the title.
Second World Seniors Crown for Tessa Davidson
Tessa Davidson won her second World Women’s Seniors Championship title in impressive fashion as she dropped just a single frame en-route to glory.
The number one ranked player in women’s seniors snooker, Davidson booked her place in the title match with back-to-back 3-0 victories over Mongolia’s Erdenetugs Dash and Germany’s Diana Schuler.
Her opponent in the final was 53-year-old Chinese player Han Fang, who had followed up a quarter-final win over Altangerel Bolortuya by ending the hopes of defending champion Mary Talbot in the last four with a dramatic deciding frame victory.
The best-of-five frame final was a tense and hard-fought affair that saw the first two frames split between Davidson and Han.
Davidson, the 2022 champion then showed her experience to take the next two frames of the final and earn the victory.
The World Women’s Championship has reached the knockout stages at the Changping Gymnasium in Dongguan, China. You can follow all the action at WPBSA SnookerScores and watch LIVE on Facebook and YouTube
