WSF Women’s Championship 2026 | Tournament Preview
The first World Women’s Snooker Tour ranking event of 2026 runs from 19-23 January as the WSF Women’s Championship is held at the Hotel Marinela in Bulgaria.
Organised by the World Snooker Federation (WSF), the event takes place alongside the WSF Junior Championship and will see players from seven different countries contest the title.
Among those present will be the world’s top three players, with defending champion Mink Nutcharut, reigning world champion Bai Yulu and 2024 WSF winner Ng On Yee also set to battle for the world number one ranking during the course of the week. Read more about the ranking permutations HERE.
The competition will be played over five days, with all players beginning their tournament at the round robin group stages. The top four from each group will progress to the knockout rounds.
Group A
World number one Mink Nutcharut will lead Group A with the Thai star looking to defend the title that she memorably won 12 months ago in Morocco.
Without a ranking title since her victory against Bai Yulu last year, Nutcharut comes into the tournament in need of a strong performance to remain world number one a position she has held since August 2023.
Also seeded in her group is compatriot Narucha Phoemphul, who reached her first ranking event final earlier this season at the Australian Open in Sydney, and is up to a career-high world ranking of seventh position.
Reigning World Women’s Under-21 champion Panchaya Channoi is set to make her debut in a tournament outside of Asia, while Hong Kong China’s Yee Ting Cheung will make her first appearance in a WSF Championship.
The group will be completed by two debutants as Ralitsa Karaminkova will become the first player from Bulgaria to compete on the Tour in 13 years, while teenager Alexandra Ceruta makes history as the first-ever Moldovan player to play on the WWS circuit.
Group B
World champion Bai Yulu enters the WSF Women’s Championship looking to extend her 31-match winning streak on the WWS Tour which stretches back to the 2025 British Open last March.
Having already claimed three titles from four so far this season, China’s Bai for the first time has a mathematical chance of climbing to the top of the world rankings after the tournament, if results go her way in Sofia.
Standing in her way during the group stages will be three-time world champion Ng On Yee, who lost out to Bai in the title matches at both the UK Championship and Niche Cues Women’s Open in recent months.
Elsewhere in the group, UK Championship quarter-finalist and reigning EBSA European Women’s champion Anna Prisjažņuka will be targeting another strong performance in Sofia, while Polish duo Izabela Łącka and Ewelina Pislewska also take part.
The group is completed by So Man Yan of Hong Kong China, who reached the quarter-finals two years ago in Albania,
The action gets underway on Monday from 10:00am EET, with the latest match results and standings available via WPBSA SnookerScores.
