Reanne Evans became the first woman to qualify for the venue stage of a ranking tournament when she overcame Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-4 in the Wuxi Classic qualifiers in Gloucester on Tuesday.
The Englishwoman has been the overwhelming star of the women’s game for the last decade – capturing an incredible nine world titles.
But the 27 year-old, who has a daughter with ex-partner Mark Allen, picked up one of the biggest paydays of her career by guaranteeing herself a minimum prize money return of 3000 pounds.
This is more than six times the amount she earned for lifting her latest world trophy in the women’s game.
And she did it the hard way too. Evans came from 3-0 down to the former world amateur champion to turn the match around in her favour at 4-3.
Despite the fact her Thai opponent forced a decider, Evans dominated the final frame for a memorable moment in snooker’s history.
This triumph should inspire both Evans and other female competitors to be more confident in taking on their male counterparts.
Evans’ reward is a trip to China and potentially an appearance on TV as she comes up against 2010 world champion Neil Robertson in the next round.
Robertson himself created a bit of history as he recorded a maximum 147 break en route to a 5-0 drubbing of Mohammed Khairy.
The Aussie becomes the 18th player to record two or more perfect breaks and the 147 is the 98th overall in professional competition – edging ever nearer the big ton.
Elsewhere on the second day of qualifying there were few shocks as most of the higher ranked players took heed of the warning given from world no.1 Mark Selby’s unexpected defeat the previous day.
Judd Trump, John Higgins, Mark Allen, Peter Ebdon, Liang Wenbo and Xiao Guodong all advanced while Ding Junhui narrowly avoided a disastrous defeat that would have seen him miss his hometown event when he compiled a century in a deciding frame victory over Aditya Mehta.
Arguably the biggest result of the day, aside from that of Evans, was rookie Australian Vinnie Calabrese winning the last four frames to beat Anthony McGill 5-3.
Irishmen Ken Doherty, Fergal O’Brien and David Morris are all in action today, Wednesday.
The full draw and list of results can be viewed by clicking here.
