Mink Nutcharut won her first professional snooker match on Tuesday with a 4-2 victory over Mitchell Mann in the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers.
The up-and-coming young star from Thailand didn’t manage to compile a break over 50 but battled hard to see off Mann at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan.
After taking three out of the opening four frames to move to within the brink of glory, her English opponent stayed in the hunt with contributions of 54 and 50.
But Mink dug deep to take the sixth frame and with it a berth at the venue stages of the Northern Ireland Open in October.
The 22 year-old joined the professional circuit at the start of the 2022/23 snooker season on the back of her high ranking on the women’s circuit.
The highlight of her fledgling career so far was capturing the World Women’s Snooker Championship earlier this year in Sheffield.
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A first professional victory for Mink quickly follows Ng On Yee’s success against Ken Doherty in the recent British Open qualifiers and will help to silence the critics of the women’s game.
Hong Kong’s Ng, however, lost her most recent qualifying tie after a 4-1 reverse against Chen Zifan.
Elsewhere, Stephen Maguire guaranteed his presence in Belfast courtesy of a 4-2 triumph over Oliver Brown.
After a slow start in which he lost the opening couple of frames, Maguire compiled breaks of 80, 96, and 138 to orchestrate his own lead.
The Scot duly took a scrappier sixth frame to confirm his place in the last 64 of the competition.
A dramatic tie between Jimmy Robertson and Gary Wilson ended with the former pinching glory on the final black in the deciding frame.
Meanwhile, Ryan Day, Jamie Jones, and Cao Yupeng were somewhat surprise losers as they bowed out at the first hurdle.
Day was defeated 4-1 by Ben Woollaston while his fellow Welshman Jones couldn’t build on the momentum that took him to the quarter-finals of the European Masters last week and was downed by Andy Lee.
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There was some good news for the Welsh contigient, though, with Dylan Emery outlasting Cao with another 4-1 scoreline.
In the day’s other fixture, Zak Surety overcame Himanshu Dinesh Jain with runs of 67 and 65.
On Wednesday, the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers continue with Graeme Dott, Hossein Vafaei, and Jordan Brown among those in action.
Tuesday’s results
Chen Zifan 4-1 Ng On Yee
Andy Lee 4-1 Jamie Jones
Dylan Emery 4-1 Cao Yupeng
Mink Nutcharut 4-2 Mitchell Mann
Ben Woollaston 4-1 Ryan Day
Jimmy Robertson 4-3 Gary Wilson
Zak Surety 4-1 Himanshu Dinesh Jain
Stephen Maguire 4-2 Oliver Lines
Wednesday’s order of play
Andy Hicks vs Zhang Anda (10am)
Wu Yize vs John Astley (10am)
Fan Zhangyi vs Ashley Hugill (1pm)
Si Jiahui vs Anton Kazakov (1pm)
Hossein Vafaei vs Mark Davis (4pm)
Graeme Dott vs Craig Steadman (4pm)
Jordan Brown vs Andrew Pagett (7pm)
Dominic Dale vs Rebecca Kenna (7pm)
Live coverage of the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers is on Matchroom.Live and the Eurosport App.
Featured photo credit: WST
