Mink Nutcharut beat Ng On Yee 4-2 to win the US Women’s Open snooker title at Ox Billiards in Seattle on Sunday.
The 23 year-old captured her sixth World Women’s Snooker Tour victory with a come-from-behind success against Ng.
The latter had appeared to be in control of the title-deciding fixture when she orchestrated a 2-0 lead with the help of a break of 55.
However, Nutcharut fought her way back into the contest, and after restoring parity she crucially snatched a tight fifth frame to move in front.
The 2022 women’s world champion then proceeded to take the sixth frame to seal the triumph.
There was some consolation for Ng, who managed to take home the $500 high break prize thanks to her terrific 121 effort during the group stages of the competition.
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In what was the first ranking event of the 2023/24 season on the women’s circuit, Nutcharut’s only frames lost were in the final itself.
She emerged from the initial round-robin phase of the competition with a hat-trick of 3-0 victories over Marissa Du, Louise Foster, and Jaime Miller.
Nutcharut subsequently recorded back-to-back bagels in the first two knockout rounds to underline her status as the favourite.
She dispatched of Ip Wan In Jaique of Hong Kong in the quarter-finals before a 4-0 defeat of Jamie Hunter, the 2022 US Women’s Open snooker champion, in the semi-finals.
It represents Nutcharut’s first piece of silverware since landing the Belgian Women’s Open in January.
For Ng, it was a disappointing conclusion to what had for long periods looked like a dominant tournament on her side of things.
The three-time world champion similarly reached the final with a string of one-sided whitewash performances, including a 4-0 rout of Rebecca Kenna in the last four.
When the 32 year-old went ahead in the final, she would have expected to see the job through.
But her opponent fought back in fantastic fashion to again underline her pedigree as a star of the women’s game.
Indeed, with her latest victory, last year’s World Mixed Doubles champion will rise back to the number one position on the World Women’s Snooker Tour.
She will usurp Reanne Evans at the top of the standings after the latter opted not to travel to America.
Nutcharut will be hoping the confidence gained from this glory will aid her progress on the professional main tour.
The young Thai will fly back to the UK this week to compete in the British Open qualifiers in Leicester, where she takes on Mohamed Ibrahim on Thursday.
US Women’s Open
Quarter-Finals
Ng On Yee 3-0 Liu Jing
Rebecca Kenna 3-0 Marissa Du
Jamie Hunter 3-0 Maryann McConnell
Mink Nutcharut 3-0 Ip Wan In Jaique
Semi-Finals
Ng On Yee 4-0 Rebecca Kenna
Mink Nutcharut 4-0 Jamie Hunter
Final
Mink Nutcharut 4-2 Ng On Yee
Side Tournaments
The seniors side-tournament saw Ip Wan In Jaique defeat US player Kathleen Stanley to win her first title in four years.
The 43-year-old saw off Maryann McConnell and Diana Schuler in two hard-fought matches to reach the final match against home player Stanley, before scoring a 2-0 victory to earn her maiden seniors crown.
In the Challenge Cup, Germany’s Schuler earned her second career WWS title following wins against US trio Frances Tso, Kaarin Lysen, and Stanley.
The WWS Tour continues next month with the UK Women’s Snooker Championship from the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.
The event runs from September 22nd to 24th.
Featured photo credit: WWS
