Neil Robertson and Mink Nutcharut won the first world mixed doubles tournament for 31 years on Sunday night as women’s snooker fully justified being handed one of its biggest ever platforms.
Thailand’s reigning women’s world champion Mink, 22, and Australia’s world No4 Robertson beat four-time men’s world champion Mark Selby and Rebecca Kenna 4-2 in the final in Milton Keynes.
That saw them pocket the joint prize pot of £60,000 and it came after an astonishing fightback in the round-robin group in which they lay bottom of the four teams on Saturday night.
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There was also a slice of luck in the last set of group matches when Selby and Kenna beat title favourites Ronnie O’Sullivan and Reanne Evans 3-1, stopping them from getting a second frame they needed to reach the final themselves.
Just one more frame and they would have pipped the eventual winners into the showpiece courtesy of having beaten them on Saturday night in the group phase.
But it ended up being a terrific day especially for Mink, who also had the highest break in the event by any of the women players – a superb clearance of 74 against Judd Trump and Ng On Yee.
Mink said: “This tournament was a great experience for me and hopefully wonderful for women around the world to watch on TV. Neil is a great player and he played really well tonight. I am so happy to be a champion on the TV. I really enjoyed the good break of 74 I made, I made some good pots and that was very exciting.
“I think this was even more exciting than winning the women’s world championship this year for me, because it is my first time playing with a top man player in a big tournament. Maybe this is a very big moment for women’s snooker, a lot of people have seen this on TV. It will make me want to try harder and learn more.”
They have defeated Selby-Kenna 4-2 and take home £30,000 each.
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Former world champion Robertson, 40, said: “It is incredible, an amazing feeling. And I am so proud of Mink – in some ways she carried us through to the final with her performance in the last group match, and that filled me full of confidence coming into tonight and meant I played really well. I knew that even if I did make a mistake she was playing well enough to take opportunities.
“Mink made the highest break between us during the whole event, and to do that under pressure was amazing. I am sure it will do wonders for girls watching this with this showcase and this was just great to be a part of.
“I am sure there are girls out there watching and parents who may now think it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to let their daughters play cue-sports. It’s about pursuing dreams.
“We only met for the first time on Saturday morning – but we had dinner before the final and it has been fantastic. I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.”
All four of the women players are now thanks to their rankings also on the main tour and locking horns with the men on a regular basis. For Mink and Kenna this is their rookie year on the circuit, while Evans has been there in two previous seasons, and Ng On Yee for one.
And this event came not long after two significant wins for women players in August – Mink claiming her first professional win against Mitchell Mann in the qualifiers for the Northern Ireland Open, just a few days after arguably the greatest ever win by a woman player as On Yee knocked former world champion Ken Doherty out of the British Open qualifying round.
Earlier in the day there was huge drama in the third and final set of round-robin group matches. Trump and Hong Kong’s On Yee started the competition with a bang when beating O’Sullivan and Evans 3-1 on Saturday.
But after being thrashed 4-0 by Robertson and Ming on Sunday afternoon – a margin that was later to get the latter pair into the final – they were out.
The Australia/Thailand pair were still not guaranteed their final place, having to rely on the result between Selby and Kenna, and O’Sullivan and Evans.
But when the pre-tournament favourites with 19 world titles between them failed to take a second frame against Selby and Kenna, that was their last chance gone.
A 3-1 win for four-time world champion Selby and Yorkshire’s Kenna, whose place on tour has been earned the hard way having been banned from sexist local leagues in the past, gave them a third straight group victory by the same scoreline.
And it also handed Robertson and Mink a final lifeline, while booting out Selby’s great rival O’Sullivan and partner Evans.
Selby will though take some comfort from his own form. He took some time out earlier in the year having been very honest about some mental health issues. But he looked happy and confident as he knocked in some big breaks including a magnificent 134.
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