Jimmy White won hist first ranking event match since the start of last August after beating Ali Carter 4-1 on Monday.
In doing so, the ten times ranking event champion qualified for the Indian Open in July, where he’ll face fellow veteran Joe Swail.
White won only one match in a dismal 2015/16 campaign that saw him denied in many first round deciders that kept him rooted to the bottom of the rankings list.
In collecting £2,000 for his win over twice World Championship runner-up Carter, the 54 year-old has already quadrupled his ranking earnings from that of last season.
It’ll take a massive effort for White to salvage his tour card by breaking back into the world’s top 64, though, with realistically around another £50,000 required to challenge the higher section.
Of course, with White’s legacy there is always the opportunity that he’ll gain a wildcard next season in a similar way as to how James Wattana has for this campaign and Steve Davis managed in the past.
For now, his legion of fans will simply be happy to see him back to winning ways.
Elsewhere, it was routine for most of the bigger names on the final day of qualifying for Hyberabad.
Along with Carter, Ken Doherty was a notable casualty as he suffered a 4-3 defeat to amateur Oliver Brown.
Doherty himself is in danger of dropping outside of the crucial top 64 cut-off point in the rankings so will require a few good wins during this campaign to avoid the relegation.
Stuart Bingham, Shaun Murphy, Stephen Maguire and Barry Hawkins all advanced unscathed.
Meanwhile, Matthew Selt wasn’t distracted by his upcoming suspension as he whitewashed Gareth Green 4-0, a scoreline shared by Anthony McGill and Alfie Burden as they also progressed.
New Chinese amateur Fang Xiongman got off to a promising start by edging countryman Li Hang while Finland’s Robin Hull beat European Under-21 runner-up Brandon Sargeant.
Englishmen Mark King, David Grace and Steven Hallworth made up the final qualifiers.
Qualifying continues at the Guild Hall in Preston with the World Open preliminaries until Thursday.
