Latest news with #WorldWomen'sSnookerChampionship
Metro
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Metro
China's Bai Yulu retains World Women's Snooker Championship
Bai Yulu has won her second World Women's Snooker Championship, beating Mink Nutcharut in the final, just as she did last year. The 21-year-old beat the Thai star 6-4 in Dongguan to cement her place as the leading player in the women's game. China continue to boast the world champion in Zhao Xintong after his triumph at the Crucible and the women's world champ thanks to Bai's success on home soil. Bai beat three-time former champion Ng On Yee in the semi-finals before whitewashing compatriot Xia Yuying 5-0 in the semis. That set up a clash with Mink in the final after the 2022 champion beat India's Anupama Ramachandran 4-0 in the quarter-finals and fellow Thai cueist Baipat Siripaporn 5-1 in the semis. The final was a tense affair with plenty of frames ending very closely, including the first of the match which Bai nicked 51-50. More Trending Mink rallied and took the next three and led 4-2 with the only half-century of the contest. That proved to be as good as things got for her, though, with the defending champion winning four on the spin to get her hands on the trophy again. The final frame saw both having a number of chances to win it, with Mink dramatically going in-off on the final pink as it looked like she was forcing a decider. More to follow… MORE: Q School becomes last chance saloon after four survive first event MORE: Barry Pinches names career highlight, biggest regret and 'crying shame' in snooker MORE: Alfie Burden talks World Seniors redemption, online abuse and Q School bloodbath
Newsroom
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Newsroom
Kiwi aims to bring the world to our snooker tables
Agnes Kimura is fundraising hard to head to China for the 2025 World Women's Snooker Championship, but playing against her peers isn't the most important part of the trip. Instead, she has a much bigger goal in mind. With the men's world championships just completed in England, it's less than a month before the women's version takes centre stage, with the annual highlight of the World Women's Snooker Tour, taking place in Dongguan, from May 20-27. With Kimura being a board member of the New Zealand Billiards & Snooker Association (NZBSA) she's made it clear that she'll be going all out to network around her playing schedule. 'I've let my board know that my intention is to go to China and come back with a date or a year that we are going to hold a world event. The bonus is playing and being amongst these ladies,' says Kimura, who is currently ranked number 41 in the world. Currently, the closest world event to New Zealand shores is the Australian Women's Open, which will take place in Sydney this October. That event provides world ranking points to participants and Kimura knows that if she can get a similar event in Aotearoa, it will make a huge difference to the sport here. 'I'm very close with [women's world ranked number one player] Mink Nutcharut and I'm in touch with some of the other ladies as well, and the Australian ladies,' Kimura says. Kimura winning a world amateur title with her team in Las Vegas in 2018. Photo: Supplied 'If you're wanting to promote something coming into your country, how are they supposed to know what your country is like if there's no-one from there at your event? I'll [also] talk to players that I've never met before.' In February 2024, Kimura played a key role in setting up the New Zealand Women's Open to take place for the first time in over 20 years, which opened up the competition to female players outside New Zealand. 'With my friendships and bonds that I have with the Australian ladies, I managed to get nine of them to travel over here and we had a big field of 30 which we haven't seen for years.' The event took place over two days at the Papatoetoe Cosmopolitan Club in Auckland, with a key reason for that choice of venue being that it has eight world class tables, a big deal for the best players in the world, and something that the NZBSA would need to provide for a world ranking event. 'World class players, the first thing they're going to do is hit that ball around the table and if they don't like it, they're not coming back. They know the cloth, they know the run of the table, they know the pockets, all that sort of stuff. A lot of people don't realise that, but that's what they look at, they're used to playing on quality tables,' Kimura says. Kimura started playing about 20 years ago and the sport became an integral part of life for her and her family. Coach Stanley Bunn, now retired, with Kimura. Photo: Supplied 'I started watching my partner [Lee Hildred] play. He used to play a lot of snooker back when we were younger. Stanley Bunn, the national coach, owned Cue Sports in New Plymouth, and we used to go there all the time. I just used to go and watch, I had no idea what they were doing. Then I got asked if I wanted a job and I said yes and next minute I'm refereeing at the table and I'm pulling the balls out of the pockets and it went from there,' Kimura says. Bunn then started to show Kimura different shots on the table and asked her to practise them for 15 minutes every day and gradually her game started to develop and improve. 'I suppose you don't know if you've got it until people actually start telling you, because you don't see it [yourself]. Others notice it via your shot selection, or your stance. Personally, I just love the game. There's always learning and there's so much to being on top of your game with cue sports. I think it's the hardest sport you can play.' Her son Mario Hildred has also represented New Zealand, winning the Oceania U21 singles championships in Sydney in 2018, to go alongside his mother's sole New Zealand national title to date, which she won in 2016, in Gore. Kimura with husband Lee and son Mario. Photo: Supplied Finding time to practise is now one of the hardest parts for Kimura. She works as a security guard for 24/7 Security Solutions in New Plymouth, has two grandchildren and has her work for the NZBSA board, all on top of playing. Being time poor is also a reason it can be a struggle to get other women involved in the sport. 'It doesn't suit everyone. It's really, really hard to get these ladies to come and play snooker and stay. They might like a quicker game like 8-ball (pool). It takes a specific type of woman to enjoy it [but] once you do fall into liking it, you turn into loving it,' Kimura says. 'I know women who want to play, but they just need a push. I spend time encouraging women to play more snooker and how to go about it, and who to get help from, because if they don't know where to get help from, they're not going to play.' After helping so many women take up snooker and keeping them interested, Kimura now heads to China looking for the sport in New Zealand to take the next step. If hard work and dedication has anything to do with it, she'll get her break.
CNA
06-05-2025
- Sport
- CNA
Zhao Xintong makes history as China's first World Snooker champion
SHEFFIELD: Zhao Xintong was hailed as snooker's "new superstar" after winning the World Championship with an 18-12 victory against Mark Williams that heralded a Chinese revolution in the sport. Zhao's fairytale triumph at Sheffield's Crucible on Monday (May 5) was a watershed moment for snooker – becoming the first Chinese player to win the World Snooker Championship. The sport's popularity in China has grown exponentially over the past two decades, helped by the success of Ding Junhui, who served as an inspiration for Zhao. Ding lost the 2016 World Championship final to Mark Selby, but Zhao ended the wait for a first Asian male world snooker champion with a sublime display against three-time winner Williams. The country now has reigning male and female champions after Bai Yulu won the 2024 World Women's Snooker Championship. Zhao is just the third qualifier to win the title since the World Championship moved to the Crucible in 1977. He is the youngest world champion since Shaun Murphy, who won at the age of 22 in 2005. He is the first amateur player to win the world title, having lost his tour card in January 2023 for his part in a match-fixing scandal. That controversy threatened to derail Zhao's promising career when he was hit with a 20-month ban. Zhao accepted charges of being a party to another player fixing two matches and betting on matches himself in a controversy that led to 10 Chinese players being punished, with life bans for Liang Wenbo and Li Hang. But his road to redemption reached an emotional climax at the Crucible, just a 10-minute walk from his home in Sheffield. Williams first won the tournament 25 years ago and was bidding to become snooker's oldest world champion, aged 50. With that wealth of experience, he is better placed than most to rank Zhao against the current generation, and he believes the left-hander could be set to dominate for years to come. "There's a new superstar of the game. He just strolls around the table and pots balls from anywhere as if he doesn't have a care in the world," Williams said. "Xintong is going to be a national hero now. He'll be on the front page of every news outlet going and I'm sure there are Chinese companies ready to throw zillions at him. "It's great for our sport to have someone at the top who is so attacking and so young." "IT'S LIKE A DREAM" Nicknamed "The Cyclone", Zhao had been touted as Ding's heir apparent since winning the UK Championship in 2021, with Ronnie O'Sullivan and Jimmy White singling him out as a future star. He has come of age in spectacular style. Zhao crushed O'Sullivan in the semi-finals and his win over Williams was his 47th in 49 matches since he returned from suspension in the inauspicious surroundings of a Q Tour event in Sofia in September. "It's like a dream. I can't believe it," Zhao said. "There was big pressure and I was a bit nervous because I knew I couldn't miss. "I knew he could come back so quickly so I had to concentrate and be very careful." Zhao will start next season at number 11 in the world rankings. He has joined nine other Chinese players in the world's top 32, with England the only nation with more ranked in the top echelons. John Parrott, who won the world title in 1991, believes Zhao's win will serve as the spark for a golden era for Chinese snooker. China already has a national snooker academy in Beijing, training the country's best young players. Millions of Chinese fans were said to have tuned into the final to witness Zhao's coronation. "You think about how many snooker clubs they've got in China, clubs with hundreds of tables, and the population in general. He's going to inspire another wave of players in China and all over Asia," Parrott said. "There will be more to come. Whether they will be as talented as him, I don't know, because this boy is very talented." Steve Davis, a six-time world champion, knows what it takes to dominate the sport after his run in the 1980s. And Davis is convinced Zhao can enjoy a similar reign at the Crucible. "You see the quality of Zhao Xintong, it's the future and the shape of things to come," he said. "Every time anybody put anything up to him, he responded. He's a cool customer.
