Snooker was historically viewed as a game for men, and female players were generally considered to be inferior. The recent success of Asian female players has created a new generation of stars in snooker, and women's snooker is on the rise.
The first women's ranking event in Australia was held in 2019. Nutcharut Wuthharuthai won the event. She is believed by be the first female to break 147. She was born in 1999.
Chitra Krishnamurthy, a Asian lady snooker champion, is another. She became the first Indian woman to win the Australian Open Snooker Championship in 2008. She also won in 2011 the six-red Snooker Championship. Her first appearance in the Eden World Ladies Senior Championships was in 2014. She has also reached the final of the Eden World Ladies Senior Championships.
Reanne Evans is the world's number one lady snooker player. She is currently the world champion and has won ten titles in world snooker. She was also invited to the wildcard tour of the men's tour in the 2010/11 season. For her contribution to snooker she has been awarded an MBE.
Reanne Evans was raised in Dudley (West Midlands). She began playing pool at the age of 14 and went on to become a professional in snooker. She has also won eight billiards, and ball pool titles. She is also the current holder of the World Pool Championship title. She is also the European Masters champion and the most popular female player in the UK.
In 2006, Evans won the ladies world title, and was seven and a half months pregnant. She was first woman to reach main stages in a ranking event. She qualified for China's Wuxi Classic, where she defeated Thailand's Thepchaiya UN-Nooh 5-4.
Evans has been the world number 1 for the past 10 years. She has won ten international titles and was awarded the MBE for services to snooker. She has also been awarded a wildcard invitation to compete on the professional tour for the 2010/11 season. She will compete in the final stages of the world ranking event in the UK. She will play world number two Neil Robertson during the first round.
Reanne McIlroy (Reanne Evans), Emma Bonney, Kelly Fisher, and Reanne Evans are just a few of the great female players around. They are all former world number ones, and are some of the greatest snooker players of all time. According to the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, there is no gender barrier in snooker. At the moment, there are only two women ranked among the top 30 in the world's men's rankings. If the next generation can challenge the best players worldwide, women's snooker will be a bright future.
Many talented ladies snooker players are out there, and the future looks bright. The sport is growing in the United States and other countries, and Mike Dominguez, owner of OX Billiards in Seattle, hopes to get the sport to grow in the U.S.