Jimmy White kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the World Snooker Championship for the first time since 2006 with a nail-biting, final-frame win over Ukrainian Anton Kazakov.
The veteran six-time runner-up, who turns 63 next month, was 7-3 down just after the resumption of the evening session but reeled off six frames in a row – including a break of 126 – to put him on the brink of victory.
However, Kazakov, who at 20 is 42 years younger, won the next two to set up a final-frame decider despite having only two breaks over 50 in the entire match.
White eked out a 36-point lead with 35 points remaining on the table, but four successive fouls gave Kazakov the initiative. The Ukrainian was unable to take full advantage, White finally mopping up the colours to clinch victory at 1.20am.
In the afternoon session White had suffered the rare indignity of losing the third frame on the “three-miss rule”, which applies when a player fails to hit the intended ball on three consecutive occasions when they have a clear view of it and are not snookered.
Poland 14-year-old Michal Szubarczyk’s attempt to break Ronnie O’Sullivan’s long-standing record by becoming the youngest qualifier was ended by Scotland’s Dean Young, who won 10-8.