Mind Over Matter: Panchaya Channoi Becomes World Champion at 18 in Stunning Dongguan Final
A new queen of women's snooker has arrived
There is a moment in every great champion's story where the crowd holds its breath and the world shifts on its axis. In the Snooker Sports Arena in Dongguan Changping, China, that moment arrived in the opening frame of the World Women's Snooker Championship final — when an 18-year-old from Thailand stepped to the table, composed herself, and rolled in a century break as though she had been doing it on the biggest stage her whole life. In a sense, she had. Panchaya 'Mind' Channoi has been part of this tour since she was eleven years old. On Wednesday evening, she finally announced herself to the world on her own terms.
Channoi defeated the incomparable Reanne Evans 6-2 to claim the Mandy Fisher Trophy, becoming only the 16th player in history to lift the sport's most prestigious women's prize since the championship was first held in 1976. For a teenager still discovering what she is capable of, it was a performance of extraordinary nerve and skill. She is now the youngest world champion since Ann-Marie Farren took the crown back in 1987 — a wait of nearly four decades for a champion of such youth to grace the final.
Century magic from the first ball
The final itself set a breathless tone from the very first visit. Channoi, in just her first senior ranking event final on the World Women's Snooker Tour, pinned down a break of 100 in the opening frame — her maiden century on the WWS Tour — to take an immediate stranglehold on proceedings. She became only the 19th player to compile a century on tour, and the manner of it, unhurried and precise under the scrutiny of a world final, spoke volumes about her temperament. The second frame followed, sealed in rather more unconventional fashion: a tidy break of 51 was capped off with a frame-ball fluke on the final blue, a touch of good fortune that all champions need somewhere along the way. At 3-0 after the third, the script looked to be writing itself.
Evans, of course, has not won twelve world titles by surrendering easily. The Dudley-born legend, appearing in her first world final since that record-equalling twelfth victory in 2019, gathered herself and claimed the fourth frame on the black before punishing a missed red from Channoi with a high-quality response in the fifth. Suddenly it was 3-2, the momentum had shifted, and anyone who has watched Evans at a World Championship knew that the match was far from over. But Channoi steadied. She won the next three frames — including a scintillating break of 107, the highest of the entire championship — to complete a 6-2 victory that felt both decisive and deeply significant.
The making of a champion
What makes Channoi's story so compelling is the journey compressed into just eighteen years of living. She made her tour debut at this very championship in 2019, aged eleven — a startling fact that hints at the infrastructure Thailand has built around women's snooker in recent years. Last year she went out 4-2 to eventual champion Bai Yulu at the last 16 stage, a defeat that clearly lit a fire. In 2025 she claimed the world under-21 title for the first time, and this week she completed the same under-21 and senior world title double in the same year that Bai Yulu herself achieved in 2024 — a remarkable parallel between two players who are reshaping the global game.
It was only this season that Channoi began competing outside Asia for the first time, reaching the semi-finals of the WSF Women's Championship in January. The trajectory is dizzying. And to reach this final she did not take the easy path — she defeated Bai Yulu, defending champion Mink Wongharuthai, and finally Evans herself. Three of the most formidable names in the women's game, dispatched in succession by a teenager with ice in her veins.
She also became only the second woman ever to compile two century breaks in a world final, emulating Evans's own feat from 2013 — a fitting echo, given the woman sitting across the table from her. The victory lifts Channoi eight places to a career-high of seventh in the WWS world rankings, with far higher to come if this week is any indication.
Evans's wait goes on — but her legacy endures
For Evans, there will be disappointment, naturally. This was her first defeat in a world final — a record that had stood unblemished across twelve victories — and her pursuit of an unprecedented thirteenth title must now continue. Yet her presence in this final, competing at the very highest level and pushing a generational talent all the way to 3-2, only underlines how remarkable her career remains. Women's snooker is fortunate to have both of them.
Thailand has now produced four of the last five world champions — Channoi joining compatriots Wongharuthai and Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan alongside China's Bai Yulu in lifting the trophy since 2022. The shift in global power is unmistakable. But right now, in Dongguan at least, the story belongs entirely to one teenager with a cue, a century, and a world title already in the cabinet at eighteen. The name to remember is Panchaya Channoi. Something tells us we will be saying it for a very long time.
