Jimmy White failed in his bid to qualify for the 2026 Shenzhen Open after losing 5-1 to Fan Zhengyi in the qualifiers on Monday.
The veteran ten-time ranking event champion had received a slice of fortune with the withdrawal of first-round opponent Ian Burns on Sunday.
White could have set up a mouthwatering clash against old foe Mark Williams if he advanced further, but Fan safely secured a one-sided victory.
The Chinese competitor scored heavily with breaks of 119, 73, 69, and 63 helping him through to the last 64 where he will face the defending champion.
Even though this is the inaugural edition of the Shenzhen Open, the tournament is a direct replacement of the Xi’an Grand Prix that was won by Williams a year ago.
Elsewhere, there was another important victory for Luca Brecel, who scored a 5-3 defeat of fellow Belgian Julien Leclercq at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester.
Brecel began this season with tour survival concerns hanging over him and then failed to qualify for both the China and Wuhan Opens.
But the 2023 world champion had a decent outing at the recent Championship League, and a win over Pang Junxu on Wednesday would see him qualify for Shenzhen.
As things stand, Brecel is just inside the cut-off point for tour survival on the provisional end-of-season rankings in 64th spot, so every win at this stage of the campaign will be important in easing the pressure later on.
The 31 year-old has lacked consistency across the last couple of seasons but looked sharp against Leclercq, reeling off a brace of 114 century breaks in addition to runs of 91, 84, and 64.
Among the others to reach the last round of the preliminary phase were Aaron Hill, Jimmy Robertson, Zak Surety, and Iulian Boiko.
The latter’s stock has been on the rise and a 5-2 defeat of Stan Moody has set up a meeting with Yuan Sijun in the last round.
Hill ended Yao Pengcheng’s unbeaten run in the qualifiers, while Robertson and Surety orchestrated respective wins over Gong Chenzhi and Craig Steadman.
There were a few notable upsets elsewhere, with Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day, and Tom Ford all being dumped out of the competition.
Stevens was a 5-1 loser against Ben Mertens, Day lost to Ashley Hugill, while Ford suffered a 5-3 reverse to Chinese rookie Deng Haohui.
Scott Donaldson, Jiang Jun, Liam Davies, and Liu Hongyu were the others to make it beyond the Round of 96 on Monday.
The remaining matches from that round will take place on Tuesday with the likes of Chang Bingyu, Anthony McGill, and Noppon Saengkham entering the fray.
The Shenzhen Open is adopting a staggered entry format, with the top 32 from the world rankings joining at the last-64 stage.
Those ranked in the top 16, however, will have their initial contests deferred to the venue stages at the end of September.
The Shenzhen Open qualifiers draw is available here.
Featured photo credit: WST
