Taom UK Women’s Snooker Championship 2024 | Tournament Preview
The second stop on the 2024/25 World Women’s Snooker Tour begins this Friday (6 September) with the staging of the Taom UK Women’s Snooker Championship at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds, England.
One of the most prestigious events on the calendar, the UK Championship has attracted a strong field which includes eight of the world’s top 10 ranked players, with three debutants set to join the circuit for the first time.
Record 12-time champion Reanne Evans has won the last four stagings of the event and will be one of five players seeded through to the last 16 stage on Saturday evening. Joining her will be reigning world champion Bai Yulu, world number one Mink Nutcharut, recent US Open champion Ng On Yee and two-time UK Championship runner-up Rebecca Kenna.
There promises to be an intriguing sub-plot at the top of the world rankings, with Ng On Yee within striking distance of top ranked Mink Nutcharut should results go in her favour in Leeds. With a lead of 2,875 points following the US Open, Mink will remain in top spot by reaching the final, while a run to the semi-finals would be sufficient unless Ng were to win the event.
The remaining 32 players have been drawn into eight groups of four, with the top two players from each group to progress to the knockout stages. The best six group winners will advance straight to the last 16, with the remaining 10 qualifiers to contest five preliminary round matches.
Alongside the main tournament there will also be side-tournaments held for Under-21 and Seniors players, as well as a Challenge Cup on Sunday for players who do not reach the quarter-finals.
To the group stage draw…
Group A
Former Eden Masters semi-finalist Sarah Dunn is the seeded player in Group A and will be targeting a place in the knockout rounds of the UK Championship for a second successive year.
She will be joined by 19-year-old Chloe Payne, who has previously reached Under-21 and Challenge Cup finals in Leeds, as well as Annamaria Wilkins who makes her third appearance in the event.
The group is completed by England’s Rose Nicholson, who will be one of three debutants taking part in the event.
Group B
World number eight Mary Talbot is set to make her sixth appearance in the UK Championship with a quarter-final run upon her return to the Tour in 2021 representing her best result so far.
Standing in her way during the group stage will be former two-time ranking event finalist So Man Yan of Hong Kong China, who reached the last four of the UK Championship back in 2013.
English duo Selina Dean and Maureen Rowland complete the group, with Dean marking a year since her Tour debutant at the same event.
Group C
England’s Tessa Davidson heads to Leeds hoping to maintain her strong start to the season following her run to the semi-finals of the US Women’s Open in Seattle last month.
The top ranked Seniors player begins with an intriguing group which features talented junior Daisy May Oliver, Scotland’s Deborah Fladgate and Kate Le Gallez of Guernsey, who reached the last 16 in Leeds back in 2021.
Group D
Recent US Women’s Open finalist Anupama Ramachandran is set to make her second appearance at the UK Championship, having reached the quarter-final stage a year ago before losing to eventual champion Reanne Evans.
The talented 22-year-old will face a tough early test against former British Open finalist Hannah Jones, who herself reached back-to-back UK Championship quarter-finals from 2012-13.
Also present will be 15-year-old Laura Killington, who has reached the knockout rounds of her previous two WWS tournaments, as well as home town player Sophia Drozd, who makes her Tour debut in Leeds.
Group E
Former world champion Baipat Siripaporn was a UK Championship semi-finalist 12 months ago and will be hoping to go one match further in 2024 as she makes her third appearance in the competition.
She is joined by Mei Mei Fong of Hong Kong China – who reached the last eight on her only previous appearance in the competition back in 2019 – as well as Leeds’ own Elizabeth Black and Mhairi Mackay of Scotland.
Group F
Last year’s Australian Women’s Open runner-up Amee Kamani reached the last eight stage on her UK Championship debut a year ago and will be aiming to continue her push towards the world’s top ten with another strong performance this weekend.
She shares an international group with Yee Ting Cheung of Hong Kong China, England’s Emma Brown and Zeinab Shahi of Iran, who is set to play in Leeds for the first time.
Group G
Former UK Championship semi-finalist Jasmine Bolsover is the top seed in Group G and will be aiming to improve upon back to back last 16 runs from her past two appearances in the competition.
Among those in her group are 13-year-old Ellise Scott, who reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time at the British Open back in May and also finished as runner-up at the recent EPSB Women’s Tour event in Leicester.
Similarly, Emma Powers-Richardson also reached the knockout rounds for the first time at the Landywood Snooker Club – losing out to Scott in the preliminary round – and has also been drawn in Group G, as well as Scotland’s Sarah Milne.
Group H
Germany’s Diana Schuler is set to make her eighth appearance at the UK Championship with three straight last 16 runs from 2016-18 representing her best results in Leeds so far.
The former Scottish Open Seniors champion will face familiar opposition in the form of English duo Zoe Killington and Connie Stephens, while Scotland’s Daniella Montgomery will be the third debutant to take the baize this weekend.
Under-21 / Seniors
There is set to be a first-time winner of the Under-21 competition in Leeds with defending champion Natasha Chethan not among the field this year.
Top seeded Zoe Killington will be hoping to break her title duck following six final appearances so far, with sister Laura, Chloe Payne and Daisy Oliver also gunning for their first crown. Ellise Scott is the only former Under-21 winner in the field, following her British Open success back in May.
In the Seniors competition, dominant number one Tessa Davidson will be looking to reclaim the title that she first won back in 2022 and extend a winning run at Seniors events dating back to her final defeat to Mary Talbot at last year’s UK Championship.
Second seeded Diana Schuler is the only other former Seniors event champion among the eight-player field set to contest the title.
All the action gets underway on Friday from 12:00pm BST, with the latest match results and standings available via WPBSA SnookerScores.
