Australian Women’s Snooker Open 2024 | Tournament Preview
The World Women’s Snooker Tour returns to Mounties this weekend for the staging of the Australian Women’s Open in Sydney with a record field set to contest the title.
The fifth edition of the world ranking event will welcome 27 players from seven countries including the top two as former champions Mink Nutcharut (2019) and Ng On Yee (2018 & 2023) will be among those chasing further silverware in Australia.
With the round robin stage split into four groups, both Mink and Ng will be seeded for the group stage, as well as leading Australian stars Jessica Woods – runner-up at the event in 2022 and the only Australian player to have compiled a century break on the women’s circuit – and Lilly Meldrum, who is a two-time ranking event semi-finalist at Mounties.
The group stages will see the field reduced to 16 players, with the top four players from each group to progress to the knockouts.
To the group stage draw…
Group A
Defending champion Ng On Yee will be hoping to continue a rich vein of form on the WWS Tour by becoming the first player to complete a hat-trick of titles at Mounties and win the event for a record third time.
Despite her quarter-final exit at the UK Championship last month, enters the tournament having won three of the previous five Tour events and will be aiming to further close the gap to top ranked Mink Nutcharut at the top of the global standings.
Victory for the Hong Kong China player would also see her move level with the great Stacey Hillyard on the all-time winners list with 22 career-ranking titles, with only four further players ahead.
She will be joined in the group stages by Christine Firth, Kathy Blunden, Rhonda Knight and Theresa Whitten from Australia, Agnes Kimura of New Zealand and Indonesia’s Kenny Chandra, with home player Firth the second seed in the group and a quarter-finalist a year ago.
Group B
World number one Mink Nutcharut won her first-ever world ranking event at the Australian Open in 2019 and will be hoping for another strong run five years at Mounties.
The 24-year-old, who also became world number one for the first time during the 2023 Asia-Pacific Championship held at the same venue, will share her initial group with China’s Alice Wu – a quarter-finalist at the event back in 2022 – and five players from Australia, with Carlie Tait the second seeded player having reached the last eight stage here on two previous occasions.
Kylie Bellinger has also twice reached the knockout stages at the venue, while Sharon Benson, Linda Larrea and Di Merritt will be hoping to do so for the first time.
Group C
The final group of seven players will be led by home favourite Jessica Woods, who is a former finalist who has always reached at least the quarter-finals of the event in Sydney.
Fresh from birthday celebrations on the eve of the event, Woods will be joined by Yee Ting Cheung of Hong Kong China, who was a quarter-finalist at the inaugural edition of the event in 2018 and more recently, reached the last eight of a ranking event for the second time at the British Open back in May.
Also among an international group will be Thailand’s Narucha Phoemphul, runner-up at the World Under-21 Championship in China back in March, as well as Shuangyu Jia of China who makes her second Tour appearance.
The group is completed by Australian trio Marrie Young, Krystal Aw and Monica Brettle, with Young set to make her debut Tour appearance.
Group D
Talented junior player Lilly Meldrum is once again set to be the youngest player in the competition and will be targeting another run to the knockout rounds having twice reached the semi-finals at Mounties.
Among those standing in her way will be Narantuya Bayarsaikhan of Mongolia, who makes her debut in the competition having become a regular fixture on the WWS Tour over the past 18 months.
New Zealander Heihera Rehu-Brownand Jodie Wikeepa of Australia will make their WWS Tour debuts in the group, while Dianne Spring and Joey Tohme – a quarter-finalist back in 2022 – will be hoping to return to the knockout stages this year.
All the action gets underway on Saturday from 10:00am AEST, with the latest match results and standings available via WPBSA SnookerScores.
