REANNE EVANS: PLAYER PROFILE

This weekend will see the return of "World Mixed Doubles" live on ITV (24, 25 September). The World's top 4 players (Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson) will be joined by the top 4 women as Reanne Evans, Ng On Yee, Rebecca Kenna and Mink Nutcharut will partner them (in respective order) in a double's format event.

In the warm-up to that, I've decided to bring out the third installment of Down the Rail's "Player Profile" feature - this time looking at the career of Reanne Evans MBE, the most decorated snooker player of all-time.

MILESTONES:

October 25th, 1985 - Born in England.

2002 - Aged 16, debuts in the Women's World Championship, losing out in the semifinals to eventual winner Kelly Fisher.

2004 - Wins her first Women's Ranking Event title, the Connie Gough Memorial Championship, which was the only Ranking Event of the ladies' season, following a rebuild on tour which saw even the World Championship not being held.

2005 - As the Women's World Championship makes a comeback, Evans wins the title for the first time.

2009 - Already a 5-times Women's World Champion, Reanne Evans played in the Six-Reds World Championship - in group stage she won three out of four matches including a 4-3 win over the then reigning World Champion John Higgins, later, she was knocked-out in the last 32.

2010 - Given recent results, gets a wildcard entrance to the World Snooker Tour for the 2010/11 season, but fails to win a match in her debut season.

2011 - Wins her seventh Women's World Championship (consecutively), equalling Allison Fisher's record of total titles.

2011 - Completes a record run of 90 unbeaten matches.

2013 - Evans had won the last 9 Women's World Championships by the time she beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-4 in the qualifying match for the Wuxi Classic, her first win in a World Snooker Ranking Event.

2014 - Wins her 10th consecutive Women's World Title. During the entire event she only lost two frames (out of 31 played) - in the final, she defeated Hong Kong's Ng On Yee 6-0.

2015 - Loses 4-2 to On Yee in the semifinal of the Women's World Championship, ending her run of ten consecutive titles.

2016 - Retains Women's World Title, beating Ng On Yee 6-4 in the final.

2017 - Evans beat Robin Hull 10-8 in the first qualifying round for the (World Snooker Tour's) World Championship, her first ever win in the event. She needed two more wins to qualify for the Crucible, but lost 10-6 to Lee Walker in round two.

2019 - After On Yee won her second and third world titles in 2017 and 2018, Reanne Evans retained her title by winning the Women's World Championship for a 12th time (her latest to date). In the final, she beat Mink Nutcharut (Mink had beat On Yee in the quarters in 2019, and would also go on to win the event's next edition in 2022, following a two-years break due to the pandemic). Evans never lost in a World Championship final.

2019 - She debuted in the Champion of Champions. Evans went 0-3 down to Shaun Murphy in the best-of-seven first-round, but won three consecutive frames to force a decider. In the decider, though, the former World Champion Murphy scored a 130 break to win the match.

2020 - The British Empire awards Reanne Evans an M.B.E for her services to Women's Snooker.

2022 - Enters the Snooker Hall Of Fame for contributions to the growth of snooker.

WHAT IS TO COME:

There's got to be some appetite if you're looking to add to an already illustrious CV like this, but Evans will be aiming to do that this weekend as she teams up with the reigning World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in the World Mixed Doubles. That goes unmentioned, but it's an event that she actually won an "alternate version of" four times in the past. In fact, the "Milestones" section above had to be very selective as Reanne has collected over 70 titles in her snooker career - 10 Women's UK Championship and 10 Women's Masters add to her 12 World Titles and 4 World Mixed Doubles Titles.

Evans is currently on the second year of a two-years tour card, but having zero ranking points scored on the World Snooker Tour, she'll probably be looking to regain a tour card in the next off-season to keep gaining experience at the top level and inspiring more young girls to get involved in snooker.

For all things snooker, follow Down the Rail on Instagram, like our page on Facebook and follow me on twitter!