Snooker: Women's world champion Reanne Evans bemoans lack of prize money
Last Updated: 28/10/14 12:50pm
Women’s snooker champion Reanne Evans has admitted the sport feels like a 'dead end' because of the lack of prize money and opportunities for players.
Evans, who has won 10 straight world titles, has earned just 0.5 per cent of the £300,000 awarded to 2014 men’s world champion Mark Selby.
The 29-year-old revealed that one year she earned £450 for winning the top prize in the sport while Ronnie O’Sullivan took home around £250,000.
She said: "We're basically forced to play with the men to try to make a living. The ladies aren't going to get any better if they haven't got any light at the end of the tunnel because they're not going to want to play.
"I've played against the men a few times and made a little bit of money that way but no way is it a career-changing opportunity.
"I find it really frustrating that snooker doesn't have a men's tour and a ladies' tour. Just because it's not physical, why shouldn't we have our own?"
Evans was awarded a wild card onto the men's pro tour for the 2010/11 season but did not win a match.
She made headlines in 2013 by qualifying for the Wuxi Classic in China, becoming the first woman to reach the final stages of a ranking tournament.
Evans, from Dudley in the Midlands, said the women’s sport has suffered from losing sponsors and players turning to pool.
She added: "It's intimidating for a lot of the ladies to join the men. Not for me, because I've had that experience in the past, but for the other ladies it's hard to make that transition.
"But they shouldn't have to. It's a big ask but hopefully we will have a ladies' tour and we won't be forced to go to the men's.”
