Jamie Hunter (snooker player)

Jamie Hunter is an English snooker player. She started playing on the World Women's Snooker tour in 2021 and has won two ranking tournaments, the 2022 US Women's Open and the 2022 Australian Women's Open.

Career
At the 2021 EBSA European Snooker Championship, Hunter won all three of her group stage matches, then defeated Caty Dehaene, Stephanie Daughtery and Anastasia Nechaeva to reach the final, where she faced 12-time champion Wendy Jans. Jans took a 3–0 lead in the best-of-seven s final, and won 4–1. In the women's team event, Hunter and Mary Talbot-Deegan won the title by defeating Rebecca Kenna and Emma Parker 3–2 in the final.

Hunter claimed the 2022 World Women's Billiards Championship title with a 304–148 victory against Snenthra Babu.

Hunter won her first women's ranking tournament in snooker at the 2022 US Women's Open. Having qualified for the quarter-finals by winning all three of her group matches, she eliminated Frances Tso 3–0 and then Talbot-Deegan 4–1. Hunter became the first transgender woman to win a ranking tournament by defeating Kenna 4–1 in the final.

She also took the following ranking tournament, the 2022 Australian Women's Open, with a 4–3 win against Jessica Woods in the final.

Personal life
Hunter started playing snooker after she sustained a serious ankle injury that prevented her from continuing to play football. She works in IT for a local council.

Hunter, who came out as transgender in 2019, has been criticised for participating in women's snooker events. Former UK Champion Maria Catalano has objected to Hunter's inclusion in women's tournaments and has called for transgender players to be banned from the women's tour, claiming that "if this is allowed and becomes more common, there is no future for women’s snooker." Hunter has denied that she enjoys an advantage in women's snooker and stated: "We just want to exist, whether it's sport or not."

Performance timeline
World Women's Snooker