Snooker fans left fuming as female star Bai Yulu snubbed in historic UK Championship qualifier

Watch now: GB News' sports round-up

Stuart Ballard

By Stuart Ballard


Published: 20/11/2024

- 20:36

Updated: 20/11/2024

- 21:26

Women's world champion Bai Yulu was one win away from making the main draw of the UK Championship.

Snooker fans hoping to tune in to watch Bai Yulu in action against Jack Lisowski in the final round of qualifying for the UK Championship on Discovery were left furious at the lack of English commentary on the channel.

Bai won the women's world championship earlier this year and is seen as one of the brightest female talents in the history of the sport.


That victory back in March helped Bai land a two-year tour card and hasn't taken long to make history on her debut.

She became the first woman this century to win back-to-back matches in the opening two rounds of qualifying for the UK Championship with victories over Jamie Jones and Farakh Ajaib.

Bai Yulu made it to the final round of qualifying for the UK Championship

Bai Yulu made it to the final round of qualifying for the UK Championship

GETTY

The 21-year-old then followed that up with a sensational victory over world No 44 Scott Donaldson to reach the final qualifying round.

It set up a fascinating tie with world No 21 Lisowski, who has reached six ranking-event finals in his career.

The full match was being shown live on Discovery plus, but there was no English commentary for the match to the frustration of many.

One viewer asked: "@discoveryplusUK Can you take the foreign commentary off the UK D+ stream for Lisowski v Yulu? It's very annoying."

Another fumed: "YouTube is showing Ryan Day. No sign of the lisowski match."

A third pleaded: "Please can you fix the commentary on the Jack Lisowski v Bai Yulu match? It's not the English version."

One other angrily wrote: "@discoveryplusUK HELLO ANY CHANCE SORTING SOME ENGLISH COMMENTARY OUT ON THE BAI YULU SNOOKER MATCH FFS !!!!!!!!"

Another said: "I only have the option for Finnish or silent on the Bai / Lisowski match on Discovery."

Jack Lisowski got the job done in the end

Jack Lisowski got the job done in the end

PA


The World Snooker Tour's YouTube channel was also showing live coverage of the final round of qualifiyng.

That feed featured English commentary from Ken Doherty, but the coverage flip-flopped between matches.

After Lisowksi had secured the second frame, the coverage switched over to Ryan Day's match against Sanderson Lam.

LATEST SPORT NEWS:

Bai Yulu won the women's world championship earlier this year

Bai Yulu won the women's world championship earlier this year

GETTY

Beating Lisowksi proved too tough for Bai in the end as the English snooker star raced to a 4-0 lead.

The 33-year-old threatened to whitewash his opponent, but Bai managed to snatch the fifth frame.

Lisowski regained his four-frame advantage in the next before wrapping up the win in the seventh.

You may like