For Hong Kong snooker star Ng On-yee, it’s win or bust at next month’s British Open, as loss of tour card looms large
- Ng must win in Walsall next month if she wants to retain her place on the World Snooker Tour
- And the confidence boost from a century break during qualifying at the World Championships has come at just the right time
Ng On-yee has only one option if she wants to keep her World Snooker Tour card for next season, win the British Open.
The Hongkonger is in danger of dropping out of the elite tour after struggling in the women’s World Championships and losing her No 1 ranking to fall into third place.
Still, she remains confident of retaining her playing privileges, but must beat world No 2 Reanne Evans at next month’s tournament in Walsall. Thailand’s Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan has already taken one of the two spots available after winning the world crown, and as she is also world No 1, the card falls to the next highest ranked player.
Evans is presently just 2,000 points ahead of Ng going into the season finale, which starts on May 13.
“I have to win the tournament if I want to overtake Evans in the rankings and secure the tour card,” Ng said after winning her 10th Sports Star Award on Tuesday. “This is going to be very interesting as we both aim at the same target.”
Ng said she had started preparing for the tournament after returning to the city from England, where she was competing in the qualifying stages of the World Championship.
The 32-year-old lost 10-8 to Michael Holt in a close battle during which she scored her first professional century of 115.
“My form has been improving with a lot of training on the table and also on the physical side,” Ng said. “I have been training and competing a lot in England these days against men’s players and my game has improved a lot.”
Alan Wong, a coach at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, said if Ng could translate her performance from the clash with Holt during the British Open, she stood a good chance.
“Ng was under a lot of pressure in the women’s World Championship as she thought too much on the tour card and was never in her normal standard,” he said.
“But after the surprise defeat, she played a lot more open in the World Championship under little pressure. The century break was not easy against a men’s player and I hope she can learn from that. If she does, her chance is pretty good in the British Open.”
Both Ng and Cheung Ka-wai, who won Hong Kong’s first gold medal at the World Games last year, were among the 10 2022 Sports Stars announced on Tuesday.
“It will definitely have a good impact to the sport as two snooker players won the award,” Ng said.
“We also had the Masters last year which was attended by 8,000 fans at the Coliseum with Marco Fu hitting a 147 in front of the home crowd.
“All these are good news for us and we hope we can more international tournaments in Hong Kong in future and snooker can have a better chance of returning to major multi-sport games.”
