Tatiana Woollaston is one of the officials on duty at the first Triple Crown event of the season and Ronnie O’Sullivan once crowned her the “best in the world by a mile”
A leading snooker referee has been banned from overseeing one particular player’s matches at the UK Championship – because she’s married to him.
Tatiana Woollaston, 38, who hails from Belarus, will be among the officials working at the opening Triple Crown tournament of the season, which kicked off today (Saturday, November 29). Snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan declared her the “best ref in the world by a mile” during the 2023 World Championship.
Another Woollaston will also feature at York Barbican – her spouse Ben, who secured his spot in the 32-player spectacle after navigating through qualifying rounds earlier this week. He’s now gearing up for a first-round battle against three-time UK champion John Higgins on Saturday evening.
Yet there’s absolutely no possibility of Tatiana overseeing that encounter. Speaking to the Mirror before last year’s UK Championship, she revealed they attempt to keep their snooker professions completely apart.
She explained: “He’s on the circuit as a player, I’m on the circuit as a referee. We’ve never really mix that. I’m obviously not allowed to referee his games and I wouldn’t want to, to be fair.”
Nevertheless, there are no additional limitations on Tatiana’s Crucible responsibilities whilst Ben remains in the competition. Given the two-table arrangement in operation until the semi-final phase, she could theoretically officiate whilst Ben is competing, though she’s unlikely to find herself in such a scenario, reports the Express.
Tatiana is also permitted to oversee matches in her husband’s section of the draw. She enjoyed the privilege of officiating last year’s UK final between Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins.
Ben, ranked 37th in the world, arrived in York riding high after a thrilling final qualifying round victory over fellow Leicester snooker player Joe O’Connor, rallying from 4-1 down to clinch a 6-5 win. After a marathon final frame that lasted 67 minutes and concluded past midnight, Ben remarked: “That was probably the craziest match I have ever been involved in.
“I played really well from 4-1 down but it felt everything was going against me. Then Joe had me in a lot of trouble when he needed snookers at the end. I have lost a lot of deciders this season so it’s nice to win one like that.”
World number one Trump kicked off his title defence against Stephen Maguire with a 6-4 win on Saturday afternoon. World champion Zhao Xintong, the 2021 UK champion, will start his campaign against fellow Chinese star Long Zehuang on Monday.
Eight-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan is set to face Zhou Yuelong on Tuesday.
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