Headlines over the weekend mostly focused on Xiao Guodong, but silverware was won on a couple of the other big tours as well.
On Saturday, China’s Xiao beat Gary Wilson 10-9 to capture the Wuhan Open title for the second successive season.
It brought to a conclusion the third ranking event of the 2025/26 snooker campaign, with the 36 year-old pocketing a cool £140,000 sum and leapfrogging his way to a career-high of number eight in the world rankings.
Elsewhere, though, there were a couple of events on World Women’s Snooker Tour and the amateur Q Tour which also reached their climaxes on Sunday.
Bai Yulu secures UK Championship triumph
Xiao wasn’t the only player from China to successfully defend a tournament, with his countrywoman Bai Yulu doing likewise at the UK Women’s Snooker Championship.
Interestingly, both Xiao and Bai opted to skip the recent Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in favour of representing their country at the World Games.
The pair gave up the opportunity of potentially winning huge sums of money in Jeddah, but their trip to Chengdu for the World Games proved to be worth it as they each took home a gold medal.
While Xiao carried forward the confidence from that victory into his week in Wuhan, Bai did the same across the weekend at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.
The reigning women’s world champion comfortably topped her round-robin group with a perfect record and subsequently reached the last four with knockout victories over Deborah Fladgate and Tessa Davidson.
A 4-2 defeat of Rebecca Kenna provided her with a spot in the final where she recorded the same scoreline in overcoming Ng On Yee – compiling an excellent 102 break in the second frame.
Victory for the 22 year-old takes her tally of ranking titles on the World Women’s Snooker Tour to five – a figure that looks set to grow rapidly in the years to come.
2025 UK Women’s Championship
Selected Results
Quarter-Finals
Mink Nutcharut 3-1 Anna Prisjaznuka
Ng On Yee 3-1 Baipat Siripaporn
Rebecca Kenna 3-2 Narucha Phoemphul
Bai Yulu 3-1 Tessa Davidson
Semi-Finals
Ng On Yee 4-2 Mink Nutcharut
Bai Yulu 4-2 Rebecca Kenna
Final
Bai Yulu 4-2 Ng On Yee
Hammad Miah captures Q Tour Event 1
Meanwhile, the European swing of Q Tour got under way with Event 1 taking place at the SnookerHallen in Stockholm.
Hammad Miah got off to the perfect start on the feeder circuit by beating Patrick Whelan 4-2 to claim the £6,000 top prize.
Miah is participating on this version of the Q Tour for the first time after suffering relegation from the World Snooker Tour at the end of last season.
The Englishman, who will be hoping to bounce back immediately, moves straight to the top of the Q Tour Order of Merit following his success.
Like in the past, the top-ranked player at the end of the European Q Tour series will receive a fresh two-year card to compete on the main tour.
Three additional professional tickets will be up for grabs via the Q Tour playoffs, featuring players from the European Order of Merit and champions from the various global Q Tour events.
Q Tour Event 1
Selected Results
Quarter-Finals
Hammad Miah 4-1 Alfie Burden
Peter Lines 4-0 Craig Steadman
Mykhailo Larkov 4-1 Barry Pinches
Patrick Whelan 4-3 Oliver Sykes
Semi-Finals
Hammad Miah 4-2 Peter Lines
Patrick Whelan 4-2 Mykhailo Larkov
Final
Hammad Miah 4-2 Patrick Whelan
Featured photo credit: WWS
