Jimmy White Fails in Northern Ireland Open Qualifiers

It was the last day of action in the preliminaries for the third ranking event of the 2021/22 snooker season.

Jimmy White was easily beaten by David Grace as the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers reached their conclusion on Friday in Leicester.

The veteran never got going and Grace comfortably completed a 4-0 victory to book his spot in the last 64 at the venue stages of the competition instead.

The in-form David Gilbert was another 4-0 winner at the Morningside Arena in what was the fifth day of qualifying action ahead of the main event in October.

Gilbert, who won the Championship League recently to secure a maiden ranking event success, compiled a brace of century breaks in comprehensively overcoming Ian Burns.

Elsewhere in the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers, Rory McLeod earned a similarly one-sided triumph against Dominic Dale while Liam Highfield dropped just the solitary frame in a 4-1 defeat of women’s world champion Reanne Evans.

The closest encounter of the day was between Louis Heathcote and Craig Steadman, with the former holding off a late fight back from his opponent to advance from a decider.

All of the top 16 players in the world rankings weren’t involved in Leicester this week and will instead play their round of 128 fixtures at the Waterfront Hall when the tournament proper gets under way in six weeks.

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Featured photo credit: WST