Jimmy White bowed out of the 2024 UK Championship after suffering a 6-4 defeat to Ross Muir in the qualifiers on Monday.
The Whirlwind, who beat Paul Deaville in the first round of qualifying in Leicester, faced an up-hill battle after losing five out of the opening six frames.
Breaks of 125, 103, 75, and 64 brought Muir to within a frame of victory, but the Scot subsequently struggled to get over the winning line.
White, the UK champion all the way back in 1992, gave his fans a glimmer of hope when he reeled off three frames on the spin to reduce the arrears to just one again.
But the 62 year-old couldn’t force a deciding frame, with Muir finally able to clinch the frame he needed to reach the third round.
Among the others to advance to the penultimate round of the preliminary competition were Zhao Xintong and Marco Fu.
Zhao, invited to participate on the back of his recent success on the amateur Q Tour, comfortably overcame the challenge of fellow Chinese cueist Jiang Jun.
The 27 year-old is a couple of wins away from returning to the scene of his famous UK triumph at the Barbican Centre in 2021.
Former finalist Fu progressed courtesy of a routine 6-1 triumph over Amir Sarkhosh, while 2003 UK champion Matthew Stevens extended his stay in the tournament as well.
It was another good outing for several among the Chinese contingent on the main tour, with Liu Hongyu, Lei Peifan, Xing Zihao and last season’s Rookie of the Year He Guoqiang moving forward.
The ever-improving Stan Moody, veterans Joe Perry and Michael Holt, and Irishman Aaron Hill also reached the third round of four at the Mattioli Arena.
The third day’s evening session saw the penultimate stage begin and 2004 UK champion Stephen Maguire managing to overcome Latvia’s Artemijs Zizins.
Maguire compiled a break of 119 in reaching the final round, taking his career tally of UK Championship centuries to a hundred – only the third player to achieve the feat.
Former Masters and world champion Stuart Bingham began his quest to lift the Triple Crown trophy absent from his collection with a 6-3 win over Oliver Sykes.
There were victories elsewhere for Jack Lisowski over Rory Thor and Jak Jones against Ian Burns, while Jackson Page, Fan Zhengyi, Elliot Slessor, and Jimmy Robertson emerged unscathed too.
The remaining third-round fixtures take place on Tuesday with three-time former UK champion Neil Robertson entering the fray.
The final round on Wednesday and Thursday will then determine the 16 UK Championship qualifiers.
2024 UK Championship qualifiers
Monday, November 18th
Results (Round 2)
Zhao Xintong 6-2 Jiang Jun
Joe Perry 6-2 Hatem Yassen
Marco Fu 6-1 Amir Sarkhosh
Lei Peifan 6-2 Hammad Miah
Julien Leclercq 6-4 Graeme Dott
Xing Zihao 6-4 Mitchell Mann
Aaron Hill 6-5 Cheung Ka Wai
Antoni Kowalski 6-3 Anthony Hamilton
He Guoqiang 6-1 Robbie McGuigan
Oliver Sykes 6-3 Dylan Emery
Liu Hongyu 6-1 Kreishh Gurbaxani
Ross Muir 6-4 Jimmy White
Matthew Stevens 6-4 Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Michael Holt 6-5 Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Stan Moody 6-3 Duane Jones
Chris Totten 6-5 Tian Pengfei
Results (Round 3)
Fan Zhengyi 6-2 Florian Nüßle
Jack Lisowskio 6-4 Rory Thor
Stephen Maguire 6-3 Artemijs Zizins
Jak Jones 6-2 Ian Burns
Stuart Bingham 6-3 Oliver Sykes
Jackson Page 6-4 Jamie Clarke
Elliot Slessor 6-3 Long Zehuang
Jimmy Robertson 6-5 Daniel Wells
Tuesday, November 19th
Schedule (Round 3)
9:30am UTC
Scott Donaldson vs Bai Yulu
Ryan Day vs Louis Heathcote
Yuan Sijun vs Sanderson Lam
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs David Lilley
Wu Yize vs Ashley Carty
Robbie Williams vs Wang Yuchen
Barry Hawkins vs Alfie Burden
Joe O’Connor vs Michael Holt
2:30pm UTC
Tom Ford vs Lei Peifan
Ben Woollaston vs Joe Perry
Zhou Yuelong vs Marco Fu
Matthew Selt vs Aaron Hill
Ricky Walden vs Antoni Kowalski
Noppon Saengkham vs Zhao Xintong
Dominic Dale vs Julien Leclercq
David Gilbert vs Xing Zihao
7:30pm UTC
Hossein Vafaei vs Ma Hailong
Robert Milkins vs Ross Muir
Xu Si vs Chris Totten
Pang Junxu vs Stan Moody
Anthony McGill vs He Guoqiang
Lyu Haotian vs Liu Hongyu
Martin O’Donnell vs Matthew Stevens
Neil Robertson vs Oliver Lines
Click here to view the full draw
(snooker.org)
How to watch the UK Championship qualifiers
Watch worldwide on WST’s Facebook or YouTube channels (outside China). You can also watch live on discovery+ throughout Europe including the UK and Ireland.
Featured photo credit: WST
