Mink Nutcharut has won the Belgian Women’s Open for the second successive season after beating Ng On Yee in Sunday’s final.
The young Thai star fought back from behind to pip Ng to glory with a 4-2 scoreline at The Trickshot in Bruges.
As the top seed, Nutcharut received a bye through to the knockout stage of the competition, bypassing the round-robin phase.
The 24 year-old’s first opponent came in the last 16 when she easily dismantled the challenge of Connie Stephens in a whitewash display.
Nutcharut followed that up with another 3-0 victory in the quarter-finals, where she outplayed Mongolia’s Bayarsaikhan Narantuya.
A blockbuster semi-final clash against Reanne Evans subsequently lived up to its billing.
A ding-dong battle went all the way to a deciding frame, which Nutcharut won to set up the meeting with Ng.
The latter had reached the final with defeats of home favourites Anja Vandenbussche and Wendy Jans, triumphs that came either side of a quarter-final win over Tessa Davidson.
Hong Kong’s Ng began the title-deciding showdown strongly, making a break of 88 in the first frame and edging a tight third to lead 2-1.
But breaks of 87 and 55 helped Nutcharut to restore parity on two occasions, and the 2022 women’s world champion then took a couple of scrappy frames to seal victory.
Success represents her second title of the 2023/24 season, adding to her previous win at the US Women’s Open in August when she also eclipsed Ng in the final.
Nutcharut’s seventh ranking title also rubber stamps her status as the world number one player on the women’s tour.
2024 Belgian Women’s Open
Selected Results
Quarter-Finals
Mink Nutcharut 3-0 Bayarsaikhan Narantuya
Reanne Evans 3-1 Anupama Ramachandran
Wendy Jans 3-2 Rebecca Kenna
Ng On Yee 3-2 Tessa Davidson
Semi-Finals
Mink Nutcharut 4-3 Reanne Evans
Ng On Yee 4-1 Wendy Jans
Final
Mink Nutcharut 4-2 Ng On Yee
Featured photo credit: WWS
Mink looks set to reclaim a new main tour card as the top ranked women’s tour player which might give her some more competitive confidence in the remainder of this season. Outside of the four top ladies players there doesn’t seem to be much more competitive talent coming through at present, what players are emerging seem to be primarily south and south east Asian players. I’m not sure what to conclude about the state of women’s play in the UK and Europe but it doesn’t seem to have much to it considering that there used to be a steady trickle of players in -fairly recent- years gone by.