Jimmy White first qualified for the Crucible in 1981, but the prospects of the six-time world finalist returning to the sport’s biggest stage 43 years later look bleak.
White was given a bye to the second round of qualifying after fellow Londoner Martin Gould withdrew from the competition, but the former UK champion endured a tough time in falling 7-2 behind to 19-year-old Chinese player Liu Hongyu at the English Institute of Sport.
A fine 81 break saw White level up at 1-1, but he shipped the next four frames with world No. 80 Liu producing runs of 74, 60 and 135 in moving 5-1 ahead.
The Tooting player won the seventh frame, but Liu claimed the next two to leave himself three frames short of victory when the match resumes on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, 17-year-old former world junior champion Stan Moody suffered a 10-6 defeat after losing the last five frames to Mohammed Shehab in a 10-6 loss.
Elsewhere, world No. 64 Mark Davis boosted his hopes of securing his tour card for next season as he built up an 8-1 overnight lead against Andrew Pagett while former European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson leads Liam Davies 7-2.
Latest World Championship results
- Mohammed Shehab 10-6 Stan Moody
- Gao Yang 10-6 Ishpreet Singh Chadha
- Peng Yisong 10-5 M Phetmalaikul
- Ashley Carty 10-4 Liam Graham
- Liam Pullen 10-3 Anton Kazakov
- Alfie Burden 10-1 Rebecca Kenna