Ng On-yee still eyes No 1 spot despite Masters loss
Ng On-yee is on course to regain her world No 1 ranking, despite failing to successfully defend her Eden Women’s Masters title.
The 32-year-old Hong Kong star was well beaten in the final contested in Brighton, losing 4-0 to Thailand’s reigning world champion “Mink” Nutcharut.
But Ng has no time to dwell on the defeat, with a Scottish Open qualifier against the men’s world No 8 Kyren Wilson looming in Edinburgh today.
The Hongkonger arrived in Brighton with direct entry to the last 16, where she beat Poland’s Nikola Broyak 3-1, and followed that up with a 3-0 win over England’s Mary Talbot-Deegan in the quarter-finals.
The semi-finals featured all four top-ranked women, with Ng taking down British world No 3 Rebecca Kenna 4-2, to set up a final against Mink, who dispatched world No 1 Reanne Evans 4-3.
With less than 45 minutes to rest after the semi-finals, Ng was then well beaten by her 23-yearold Thai opponent, and picked up her third second-place finish of the year.
“Another solid result from On-yee, though she will be disappointed that she was unable to defend her title,” Wayne Griffiths, the Hong Kong head coach, said. “But she is still on track to reclaim the world No 1 this season.”
As well as Ng, several other members of the Hong Kong women’s squad played at the event, with Jaique Ip Wan-in, Ho
Yee-ki, and So Man-yan all winning their group matches.
However, the trio were eliminated in the first round last-16 stage, with Ho and So falling 3-1 and 3-0 to eventual semi-finalists Evans and Kenna, respectively, and Ip losing 3-1 to Siripaporn “Baipat” Nuanthakhamjan of Thailand.
Ng has three wins over male players this year in different events, including beating China’s Wu Yize in the Welsh Open in February, former world champion Ken Doherty in the British Open in August, and Jenson Kendrick in the UK Championships this month.
Separately, Marco Fu Ka-chun, the Hong Kong Masters runner-up, lost 5-3 to world No 6 John Higgins in German Masters qualifying, despite rallying from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 lead.
“Marco had no complaints and did not quite do enough to repeat his [Hong Kong] Masters victory over John Higgins [in the semis],” Griffith said.
He added that Fu would return to Hong Kong and rest before heading back to the UK for a busy schedule in January.