Reanne Evans stuns Stuart Bingham to make Snooker Shoot Out history, Mark Selby and David Gilbert also out

Updated 26/01/2023 at 23:14 GMT

Reanne Evans made Snooker Shoot Out history by becoming the first woman to win a match at the event with a tense victory against former world champion Stuart Bingham. On a day of upsets, Mark Selby was edged out in a tight contest against Mark Davis and David Gilbert is also out. Stream the 2023 Snooker Shoot Out and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk.

‘A terrific win’ - Evans claims brilliant victory over Bingham at Shoot Out

Reanne Evans stunned an error-strewn Stuart Bingham to become the first woman to win a televised ranking event snooker match at the Snooker Shoot Out.

Evans has played at the last four Shoot Out events but failed to produce her best snooker and had some bad luck at times.

She will play Gary Wilson in the second round, with the last 64 taking place on Friday in Leicester.

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“That’s the first time I’ve actually enjoyed it,” Evans told Eurosport after becoming the first woman to win a televised ranking event match. “I know I won, but that’s the first time I felt a little more relaxed.

“I think I wasn’t expecting that much and that did the deal. I’m pleased because I’m low on confidence so any win [I have], I’m happy.

“It’s just [about] touch and feel, especially in this format you have to get to the table quick and to be fair the table was really nice, the nicest table I played on all season.”

‘Absolutely awesome’ - Evans overjoyed with win over Bingham at Shoot Out

Bingham went for a long red but missed it, so Evans capitalised and made a break of 21, narrowly avoiding a foul.

The 2015 world champion missed another long red but Evans could only increase her lead by one point, so laid a snooker which led to a safety battle.

Evans left a third long red for Bingham and he missed it again with a wild shot. Evans was 35-0 up when she ran out of position and was looking good when she got back to the table to pot a red to the green pocket.

However, she then missed the green to give Bingham a chance which he couldn’t take. Evans made two scoring visits of eight and 16 to seal the match.

Selby knocked out on home soil, Gilbert also out

Another former world champion was also knocked out on Thursday, with Mark Selby narrowly beaten by Mark Davis.

The opening two minutes were cagey, before Selby missed a long red and Davis punished him by laying a snooker behind the yellow.

Selby failed to make contact with a red by millimetres but Davis couldn’t take full advantage of the ball in hand as he made a break of just 11, missing a mid-distance red to the bottom left pocket.

Davis potted a long red but was unlucky to not land on a colour, then Selby knocked in a stunning red of his own and played a snooker behind the brown.

Although Davis hit a red, he left one on to the middle which Selby potted and made a break of 19 to lead 20-17 with one minute to go.

‘The game’s up’ - Selby crashes out of Snooker Shoot Out to Davis

A safety error from Davis saw a red creep over the bottom left next to the cushion but Selby missed it.

Davis capitalised with a red-green-red run which was enough to win the match and knock out the Jester from Leicester.

Also on Thursday, David Gilbert was shocked by Pakistan’s Asjad Iqbal 35-30.

Iqbal was in first when he potted a stunning red into the middle from nowhere to make a break of 16. However, an attempted plant later in the match went wrong and he let Gilbert in.

The world No. 18 was on a break of 20 then missed a simple red to the bottom right. Fortunately for him, Iqbal missed himself.

There was more drama when Gilbert went in-off when potting a red, so Iqbal went 35-30 ahead after his next scoring visit with two minutes to go and went on to win the match.

‘He is delighted’ - Iqbal stuns Gilbert with victory in Shoot Out clash

Two-time Shoot Out runner-up Xiao Guodong produced the only century of the evening with a classy 106 against Ukraine's Anton Kazakov while a speedy GaryWilson beat Ricky Walden.

Farakh Ajaib was trailing Chris Wakelin 25-18 with 15 seconds to go before producing arguably the greatest fluke ever by smashing into a pack of reds at the bottom of the table, with one red hitting a pink to roll into the bottom right corner.

He kept his cool to knock in the pink as well to level the scores and sent the match to a blue ball shootout, which is snooker's version of a penalty shootout.

It was over quickly as Wakelin potted his first blue and Ajaib missed, so couldn't take advantage of his fortune.

Ajaib’s wild effort sets up blue ball shootout with Wakelin

Elsewhere, Alfie Burden interacted with the crowd on his way to a 73-0 victory over Ian Burns and Liam Highfield thrashed Florian Nuessle 61-1.

Former Shoot Out champion Michael White had a dominant win against Mitchell Man, who was mocked by the crowd towards the end of the match, and David Lilley got the better of Oliver Brown 32-16.

There were also wins for Steven Hallworth, Xiao Guodong, Elliot Slessor, Xu Si, Ross Muir, Tom Ford and Haydon Pinhey.

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Stream the 2023 Snooker Shoot Out and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk

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