Category: Jimmy White

Jimmy White’s hopes of reaching the World Championship are over after a sobering 10-3 defeat to Liu Hongyu in the second round of qualifying.

The six-time finalist first qualified for the tournament in 1981, but he will not be competing at the Crucible this year as Liu advanced to a tantalising third-round qualifier against Jack Lisowski.

The writing looked on the wall for the 61-year-old after Liu raced into a 5-1 lead, as the Chinese player won four consecutive frames after White levelled the scored with an impressive clearance of 81 at 1-1.

The match resumed on Thursday afternoon, with Liu pulling further clear in frames 10 and 11 thanks to breaks of 59 and 72 respectively to effectively put the kibosh on any slim hopes of a White comeback.

The four-time World Seniors Champion recovered admirably to make his second-highest break of the match at 69, and rallied well in the final frame of the contest before being edged out 64-54.

Elsewhere, David Grace is involved in a keenly contested second-round qualifier against Rory Thor at 6-5 after 11 frames.

Grace moved in a 2-0 lead, before the Malaysian player responded to take the following two frames to wipe out the Englishman’s lead.

After both players claimed a frame each at 3-3, Thor moved into a 5-3 lead, making a the first half-century clearance of the match at 68 in the seventh frame.

But Grace hit back to make his first half-century break of 52 in the ninth frame, before taking the 10th with relative comfort at 64-10.

Meanwhile, Daniel Wells booked his place in the next round of qualifying after claiming a 10-5 victory against Xing Zihao.

However, it was all looking very different after four frames as Xing overturned a 1-0 lead for the Welshman by taking the subsequent three frames.

This included a near-maximum break of 140 from the 19-year-old in the fourth frame, but the response from Wells was emphatic.

Wells would take the next five frames, where he made clearances of 75 and 55 in the seventh and ninth to move 6-3 in front and turn the tide of the match in his favour.

The following three frames alternated between the two players, but Wells took the next three to secure victory.

Ben Woollaston and Jenson Kendrick are involved in a closely fought match, with the latter leading 8-7 and making sizeable breaks of 55, 69, 55 and 52 in the first, third, seventh and 12 frames.

Woolaston has made the highest two breaks of the match so far with clearances of 101 and 123 in the fifth and 15th frames.

Jamie Clarke leads Andres Petrov 5-4 in another tight match which included a resounding 80-0 win the ninth frame.

Petrov remains well in the hunt though, and has taken the highest two breaks of the match so far with 81 and 86 in the second and third frames.

Nothing currently separates Anthony Hamilton from Swiss player Alexander Ursenbacher, with the two players locked at 3-3 after six frames.