Teenager Panchaya Channoi produced a tremendous performance to beat Reanne Evans 6-2 and claim the 2026 World Women’s Snooker Championship title on Tuesday.
The young Thai compiled a brace of century breaks, including a tournament-high contribution of 107, to defeat the 12-time women’s world champion.
Evans, appearing in her first world final since 2019, had never before been beaten at this hurdle of the competition but a record-extending 13th crown proved elusive.
Channoi began the title-deciding affair with a break of 100 and subsequently took the following two frames as well to orchestrate a commanding 3-0 advantage.
Evans won an important fourth frame on the black to get on the scoreboard ahead of the mid-session interval, and she later won a close fifth as well to reduce the gap to one.
But Channoi’s excellent run of 107 restored her buffer, and she duly moved to the brink of glory by winning the seventh frame.
A brilliant break of 59 finally saw her etch her name onto the Mandy Fisher Trophy.
The 18 year-old, who successfully defended her world women’s under-21 title on Monday, becomes the third women’s world champion from Thailand.
She undoubtedly did it the hard way, taking the scalps of both two-time reigning world champ Bai Yulu in the quarter-finals and Thai trailblazer Mink Nutcharut in the last four.
Ng On Yee, who had won the last two ranking events leading up to the season-concluding World Championship, reached the semi-finals before losing to her old rival Evans.
Channoi won a top prize of £13,000 for her victory at the Dongguan Changping Snooker Centre in China, and her triumph also earns her a spot as a professional on the World Snooker Tour.
2026 World Women’s Snooker Championship
Selected Results
Last 16
Mink Nutcharut 4-0 Anupama Ramachandran
Narucha Phoemphul 4-3 Tessa Davidson
Bai Yulu 4-1 Yang Meng
Panchaya Channoi 4-0 Fong Mei Mei
Ng On Yee 4-1 Baipat Siripaporn
Liu Ziling 4-0 Yao Yaqi
Narantuya Bayarsaikhan 4-3 So Man Yan
Reanne Evans 4-0 Huang Qingning
Quarter-Finals
Mink Nutcharut 4-1 Narucha Phoemphul
Panchaya Channoi 4-3 Bai Yulu
Ng On Yee 4-2 Liu Ziling
Reanne Evans 4-2 Narantuya Bayarsaikhan
Semi-Finals
Panchaya Channoi 5-3 Mink Nutcharut
Reanne Evans 5-1 Ng On Yee
Final
Panchaya Channoi 6-2 Reanne Evans
Featured photo credit: WWS
The two centuries in the final were the only ones made during the tournament.
A fabulous achievement from Channoi. She’s backed up her shock win over Bai Yulu and saved her best display for the final.
Great win and cleaved through most of the favourites to win it as emphatically as you can. A new star and a serious challenger to Bai Yulu for the first time. She already puts me in mind of Mark Allen with her cue action.
Reanne Evans gave it a good go but I fancied the young underdog Panchaya to win the final after seeing a bit of her playing style in a couple of previous matches. I guess that coincidentally it will be her compatriot, Mink, who will be bumped off the Main Tour as Bai Yulu will take the 2nd wild card offered to the women’s game annually, based on her ranking position.
One comment I saw hoped she would find sponsors to help her travel and play in qualifying for WST events in Europe — I think many fail to appreciate what a financial problem trying to regularly play in Europe is for Asian players, especially the lower-ranked/less successful, including the women who hold tour cards.
I only was able to watch the quarter finals because I was not feeling well. Bai Yulu was probably going through something I have as she was totally off her game. I was proud of Reanne Evans, I think she did England proud. The quarters were alot closer than the result but she was overall too strong for Narantuya Bayarsaikhan. To beat Mink Nutcharut 5-1 is no small feat either.
Congrats to Channoi. eah you are definitely right about the demands of being on the tour. That is why I have so much admiration for the GOAT considering at such a young age, he had no support group whatsoever. In fact one could say his childhood was stolen from him.
The Luke Littler of snooker? Maybe…..