DUDLEY'S Reanne Evans has been awarded a place in the qualifying rounds of this year's World Championship.

Evans, who has won the World Ladies Championship for the past ten consecutive years, will take a place in the sport's biggest event at Ponds Forge International Centre in Sheffield in April. She will need to win three qualifying matches to reach the televised stages at the Crucible Theatre.

Evans, age 29, made history last season as the first woman to compete in the final stages of a world ranking event. She beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh to qualify for the Wuxi Classic in China, where she lost to Zhu Yinghui.

The award of a World Championship place to Evans follows a change in structure to the qualifying rounds of the tournament.

All players seeded outside the top 16 will start in the same round, with a total of 128 players competing in the qualifiers. This has opened up extra places, which will be given to any former World Champions who wish to enter, plus leading amateur players at the discretion of snooker's governing body, the WPBSA.

Jason Ferguson, Chairman of the WPBSA, said: "Reanne's achievements in the ladies game are incredible - to win ten world titles in a row in any sport is a phenomenal record. She is a true sporting great and proved her ability to compete on the open professional tour when she reached the final stages of the Wuxi Classic in China. She deserves the chance to play in the World Championship and she will be aiming to become the first woman ever to play in the main event at the Crucible. Reanne is a trail-blazer for female players around the world."

The World Championship qualifying rounds run from April 8 to 15, following by the final stages from April 18 to May 4.