Changping Set for Super Saturday!
The top three ranked players in the world and Chinese sensation Bai Yulu are set to contest the semi-finals of the World Women’s Snooker Championship on Saturday following the conclusion of the quarter-finals in Dongguan Changping.
With the group stages and early knockout rounds contested during the first four days, it was quarter-final time on Friday with the matches played across two sessions with last four places on the line at the Changping Gymnasium.
The first to secure their place in Saturday’s semi-finals would be record 12-time champion Reanne Evans, who overpowered compatriot Mary Talbot in just short of 90 minutes. Breaks of 89, 66 and 35 were enough to do the damage, with Talbot’s best chance coming in the third frame which she led early on, before Evans would ultimately deny her.
Evans is now set to compete in a record-extending 19th World Championship semi-final and remains on course to lift the Mandy Fisher Trophy for the first time since 2019 in Thailand.
She will next meet home favourite Bai Yulu in a repeat of their 2023 semi-final clash, after the 20-year-old withstood a stern test from Katrina Wan of Hong Kong China earlier today.
Although Bai was never headed in the match, Wan clinched two frames on the final black to remain in contention but would ultimately fall short as her opponent cliched the match with a break of 67 in the final frame.
The world under-21 champion – who is now guaranteed to climb into the world’s top 10 ranked players for the first time after this week – will be hoping to repeat her triumph against Evans at the same stage of the event a year ago to book her place in the title match once again.
In the bottom half of the draw, three-time world champion Ng On Yee defeated Anupama Ramachandran 4-1 to return to the semi-finals for the first time since she last won the event in 2018.
The Hong Kong China star top scored with runs of 78, 53, 39 and 30 to reach the penultimate round for the seventh time in her career overall and maintain her hopes of reclaiming the title and a place on the World Snooker Tour for next season.
Standing in her way will be Thailand’s Mink Nutcharut, after the 2022 winner saw off China’s Han Fang 4-0 in a deceptively close contest. There was in fact little to choose between the pair in the opening two frames, before Nutcharut eased to victory with runs of 39 and 30.
Mink is through to the semi-finals for a fourth consecutive time and it promises to be a intriguing contest with an opponent whom she has previously met on three occasions already this season, with the Thai player currently leading the head to head 2-1.
The action continues on Saturday with Evans v Bai to be played from 12pm CST, followed by Ng v Nutcharut not before 4pm.
