Snooker sensation Ng On-yee is on top of her game after claiming three major world championships this year. HK's rising female sports star is all chalked up and moving to the head of the queue, Wang Yuke reports.

Focus, stamina and nerves of steel are the qualities that Ng On-yee credits for her emergence as a world snooker champion from Hong Kong. Yet we're all only human - and Ng shivers as she recalls what happened to her at last year's World Snooker Championship in 2016, the sport's grandest and most important event. Looking out at the sea of spectators' faces, she "choked".

"I looked at the balls but didn't know what they were. It was as if I didn't know how to play snooker at all," Ng reflected.

Eventually, Ng lost the game at the qualifier.

Today, she's on top of her game. She's earned celebrity status as the "Hong Kong Cue Queen". The 26-year-old stunned the city by claiming three world championships over the course of a month this year: the Eden World Women's Snooker Championship in Singapore, and the World Women's 6-Red Championship and the World Festival of Ladies Snooker in Leeds, England. Her success also earned her an invitation to the qualifying rounds of the Betfred World Championship in Sheffield, England, where only elite women players are invited to compete. The invitation brought her new recognition, not only at home but as a major force in the global snooker community.

Finding form

It was the Singapore championship in 2017 that propelled her into the sport's inner circle. In the semi-finals she faced a tough opponent, women's No 1 player and 11-time English champion Reanne Evans. Ng had lost to Evans in the 2014 and 2016 finals. The third match looked as if it would be a repeat of Ng's two previous failures. She trailed Evans by 60 points in the last frame and had all but given up on herself. There were only six red balls left on the table, offering Ng faint hope of a comeback.

Perhaps recalling her crack-up at last year's Worlds, she pulled herself together - knowing that defeatism could be her biggest adversary. "I said to myself, 'Stop that thought focus, just focus,'" Ng recounted. She's learned to talk to herself, to become her own biggest booster in the heat of competition. It's the "secret weapon" she uses to pull herself back together when the competition heats up.

Ng took four hours to defeat Evans 5 to 4 in that semi-final. In the final Ng looked out on a new sea of faces. Thirty minutes, rest was all she got. But her panic started in before the final was to begin, she felt like she was suffocating. She made a quick exit, needing to find a quiet place - where she quickly downed a hamburger.

This is how she gets ready for all big games - centering herself "to get rid of obsessive thoughts of winning or losing, and to stay in the moment, to concentrate on the game", Ng said.

The final game between her and India's Vidya Pillai would drag her into a marathon of nearly 10 hours, straining her physical endurance further. Ng could feel her body caving in when the match was only half finished. She was exhausted to the point where just staying in the match became her biggest challenge.

She strained to bend over the table, leaning forward, front leg bent, back leg straight, body weight carefully distributed to make sure no last-minute movement would send her shot awry. Then focus - right hand gripping the back of the cue, left hand arched on the table to bridge the cue tip, eyes and shoulders aligned in the direction she intended to precisely send the cue ball. This strained position was repeated over and over throughout the match.

Ng began to fear her body would let her down, that she would lose her stamina and thus lose the match. That would have been a great shame for her, she said. She'd upped her training routine at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, focusing on core strength, especially the abdominal and leg muscles.

Since losing at the Worlds, she has learned better mental discipline. She keeps her mind steady and blocks out the first signs of any shift in mood. It's become her golden rule. When the nagging voice of anxiety starts whispering in her ear, she wills it to silence.

Learn the best

One of her greatest experiences, she says, was playing against top English professional Nigel Bond. She lost - and in doing so failed to advance past the qualifying round of the World Championships in 2017. Ng still treasures the rare opportunity to play against top male competitors and "to learn their techniques to improve myself".

The more she competes with top players, the more she discovers the inadequacies of her own strategies. After each match Ng and her coach sit together, watching the video replay. They review her performance and analyze other players' advantages. "I found I could have played it bolder (against Bond). My strategy was still conservative," she explained.

"It occurred to me that I was just a trivial matter in the universe of snooker," said Ng, opining that snooker is about acquiring and accumulating experience. She believes that to become an exceptional player is just a matter of time.

Ng's initial interest in snooker wasn't in the sport per se. She was hooked on the attire. She saw her father play and thought the uniform he wore was cool. She asked him to teach her to play so she could put on the uniform too. Her dad was happy to help.

Having got the uniform, she then learned to love the sport - but only after learning the basics. Exercises included swiftly pushing her cue through a circular hook on the table without touching it over and over again.

"Five hundred strokes every day," her father kept telling her. Ng smiled and admitted it was tedious, while always training on weekends dampened some of her freedom. Every time Ng slacked off, her father would lure her back with food. "My dad would chalk up my scores on a blackboard. When it reached a certain point, I could redeem a hamburger," she grinned.

Love and support

Through her father's dedication and her own perseverance, Ng made great strides developing her skills. She performed well in the local Women's Open Championship Under-21s, and went on to compete in international events such as the IBSF World Snooker Championship when she was just 15 and 16.

Giving up playtime had its disadvantages, but she feels more than compensated by the three years of bonding with her dad she gained during her early training. She had fond memories of a trip to Goa, India, in 2004. "Neither of us can speak good English, so it's a mess," laughed Ng, reminiscing about the night before a knockout game. "I did a good job in the first round, so I said to my dad, 'Why don't we eat a big meal?'"

"We had lobsters for dinner. I had too much, and the food was not clean, so I got a stomachache," Ng laughed.

Ng hasn't given up on the uniform, but has carefully crafted her own image as a woman player. Her preference is for denim overalls or shorts with braces, complete with casual T-shirt. She says the clothes makes her look young and full of vitality. She doesn't miss an opportunity to show off her fashion sense. She finds the standard white blouse boring. She chooses a white top with specially designed buttons or with lace elements. She has around 40 bow ties and a few pairs of glasses with different-colored frames. She likes mixing and matching her suits with accessories. Pigtail and hair buns are too ordinary for her, so she searches the internet looking for more outre styles - like fancy braids or even something a little outrageous.

Ng calls herself "sister" to her pet dog, a golden retriever who is her pride and joy. "I am not a tender and soft-spoken woman like some others," said Ng laughing, "but I am a downright woman in front of my puppy."

She gave the dog the name Muffin - because muffins are among her favorite snacks.

"Training day in and day out is dull, so I often get tired and down. But every time I go home, Muffin races to me and jumps up, wagging his tail. The tiredness disappears immediately. He perks me up all the time."

Unconditional love from her dog and the love of her family encourage Ng to push forward on the road to success. She doesn't think she's anywhere close to the end. She wants to get to a level where she's competing regularly against male players in international snooker.

She does not consider it a disadvantage being a woman in the male-dominated sport. Snooker doesn't demand the raw, physical exertion of some other sports, she observes.

"Rather, I can tell some men players feel nervous and awkward facing women opponents," she smirked. "Anyway, I'm totally OK to play against men."

Ng anticipates women players will achieve an event break in competition with male counterparts. She has observed more women competitors at international matches - a number of whom are from Asia. She welcomes the spreading popularity of the sport among women, while Hong Kong welcomes the elevation of another local hero - following in the footsteps of cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze and windsurfer Lee Lai-shan - to the global pantheon of female sports stars.

Contact the writer at

jenny@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 06/23/2017 page1)