Bai Yulu defeated Mink Nutcharut 6-4 in Changping, China to successfully defend the World Women’s Snooker Championship title on home soil.
The 21-year-old from China, who was taking part in a third consecutive World Women’s Snooker Championship final, becomes only the seventh player to lift the Mandy Fisher Trophy on multiple occasions and is the first to defend her title since Ng On Yee achieved the feat in 2018.
The two pre-tournament top seeds met in a repeat of last year’s final in a best-of-11 frame title match contest that was watched by a large crowd at the Changping Gymnasium.
The first two frames of the final were shared between the two cueists, who were each aiming to lift the most prestigious title on the World Women’s Snooker Tour for the second time in their careers.
Mink, the 2022 champion who was competing in her fourth final, managed to pull ahead as she secured a 4-2 advantage with a top break of 54.
Local favourite Bai refused to go down without a fight, however, and rallied with back-to-back frames to restore parity, before going ahead for the first time in the match by taking frame nine with a contribution of 61 to move one away from victory at 5-4.
What ultimately turned out to be the final frame of the match was one that was full of drama as it came down to the last few balls and both players spurned opportunities to win it.
There were gasps from the crowd as Bai missed the ball altogether when attempting a thin pink across the length of the table for victory, only for Mink to go in-off after potting it and looking likely to force a dramatic decider.
After taking a second to compose herself, the Chinese player fired home the pink from distance to complete a momentous victory.