Hong Kong snooker star Ng On-yee continues to struggle, as teammate Ho breaks through at Asia-Pacific event
- Three-time world champion Ng upstaged by teammate Ho at inaugural Asia-Pacific Women’s Snooker Championship
- Ho reaches first semi-final of a ranking tournament and says she believes it proves she can recapture form from early in her career
While Hong Kong snooker star Ng On-yee continues to struggle, teammate Ho Yee-ki finally broke through at this week’s inaugural Asia-Pacific Women’s Snooker Championship in Sydney.
The 36-year-old reached the semi-finals of a ranking tournament for the first time, upstaging Ng, who crashed out of a tournament in the last eight for the second event running.
Ho said her 4-3 defeat at the hands of eventual runner-up Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan, who also saw off Ng, proved that as long she kept “learning and training” she could match the success she showed early in her career.
“I’ve been waiting for so long to break into the semis, this is definitely an encouragement to me,” she said. “I still have a lot of room to improve, and I hope to be in the top 10 in the near future.”
Ho has previously reached the quarter-final stage of three world ranking events, with her best win coming against former world No 1 Maria Catalano at the 2018 UK Championship, before she lost to fellow Hongkonger Jaique Ip Wan-in in the last eight.
Ng’s defeat came on the back of a surprise loss at the Belgian Women’s Open last month, and while head coach Wayne Griffiths said some players would consider that an achievement, the three-time world champion charge would “be disappointed with recent returns”.
Griffiths said the World Women’s Snooker Tour had gone “from strength to strength” in recent years, with both the standard and popularity increasing dramatically.
“The ladies tour now has over 150 female cueists in the ranking list, which is 300 per cent increase in recent years,” Griffiths said. “A few years ago, all the events were in the UK, but there are now events in Thailand, Belgium, Australia and North America too.”
The Welshman pointed to the presence of Australian 14-year-old Lily Meldrum and several players under the age of 23 as evidence of the tour’s growth, and praised Ho’s “very solid performance”
Griffiths will return to Hong Kong on Sunday to prepare for the World Women’s Snooker Championship later this month in Thailand, with the city sending a seven-strong squad, that will include Ng, Ho and Ip.
Before that, all three will be involved in the World Cup team event, which is to be held at the same venue in Bangkok.
“We are always working on strengthening the depth of the squad and this is an encouraging result for both Ki and the ladies squad in general,” said Griffiths who will return to the city with the team on Sunday to prepare for two back-to-back events, the World Cup and the Worlds, both of which will be held in Bangkok at the same venue.
“There will be a field of almost 50 for the World Championship and all the big hitters will be there, this is an exciting challenge for our players and they will be well prepared and give their very best,” Griffiths said.
While Ng’s position as a former champion and world No 1 grants her some status, she is no longer the best player in Asia, with Thailand’s Nutcharut ‘Mink’ Wongharuthai expected to become the world’s best when the updated rankings are published in the next couple of days.
The 23-year-old, who has five ranking titles to her name, including her first world title last year, replaced Ng as world No 2 after winning in Belgium and her quarter-final appearance in Australia this week moved her one step closer to knocking England’s Reanne Evans off the top spot.
Mink is the twelfth player in WWS tour history to be world No 1, and the second Asian after Ng, who was world No 1 for more than a year after reaching the pinnacle in February 2018.
