Rebecca Kenna has declared herself "very happy" to be teaming up with four-time world champion Mark Selby as the pair target a win at the World Mixed Doubles tournament this weekend.
Kenna and Selby will take on Ronnie O'Sullivan and Reanne Evans, Judd Trump and Ng On-yee, and Neil Robertson and Nutcharut Wongharuthai at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes. The top four ranked players in both the men's and women's game will go at it in a round robin format, with the best two pairs then progressing to the final.
And speaking exclusively to The Mirror , Kenna, 33, said she hoped the event would help increase the exposure of female players in snooker. She was also more than content to be be paired with 'The Jester from Leicester'.
“I’ve met him before at the Paul Hunter Classic event in 2016," she said. "He’s a really nice guy and I was lucky enough to get a couple of days practice with him last week. He’s a really good laugh as well so I’m very happy to have him as a partner.”
Kenna, the current women's No 3, is a former winner of the English Women's Snooker Championship and has reached the world semi-finals four times. She's also secured a World Snooker Tour card for the 2022/23 campaign, but admits she's about to play a format she's anything but familiar with.
"It’s not really a format I’ve played before," she said. "We did something in the Europeans last year that was doubles - but I don’t really have any experience in it. But it’s a new exciting format and I’m keen to make my mark on it.
“It’s different because you’re not just playing for yourself. You’re playing for your teammate. We’ve both spoken about it and we don’t want to let each other down - but if you have those feelings and thoughts then it might hamper your game.
"You’ve got to just go out there and play your own game. If you put external pressures on yourself over letting your partner down you’re not going to play very well. I know if I have one of the world’s best behind me and I miss, they’re going to clear up. I’ve just got to not worry about who I’m playing and play my own shots."
The event will be shown live on ITV, a notion Kenna sees as a major plus point for the female players involved. And she hopes the coverage can even help inspire a younger generation of female stars.
"It’s [women's snooker] not had enough exposure over the years," she argued. "The past few years things have come on leaps and bounds and with tour cards now being on offer for the top two best women players ever year - that will grow things hugely.
“But you need to see us playing on TV to get the exposure out there. The women’s tour still doesn’t have enough players and money - so this mixed doubles event is hopefully going to catapult the women’s game and girls can see that women do play snooker. And they can see you can be a woman and play it professionally.”
As for her own individual career, Kenna is under no illusions over the scale of her task in the next year, when all is said and done in Milton Keynes: "For any rookie on their first year on tour it’s going to be hard to get those first wins under your belt," she conceded. "The conditions are different, the quality of the opponents is different. It’s just going to be a case of learning from everything and doing the best I can in terms of practice. Hopefully that just brings my game on.”
Kenna is sponsored by Ox Billiards and Keighley Kia.
