White faces uphill battle to keep Crucible dream alive at World Championship qualifying

Jimmy White reveals favourite shot, break and match from 2023 World Championship

Jimmy White first qualified for the Crucible in 1981, but the prospects of the six-time world finalist returning to the sport’s biggest stage 43 years later look bleak.

White was given a bye to the second round of qualifying after fellow Londoner Martin Gould withdrew from the competition, but the former UK champion endured a tough time in falling 7-2 behind to 19-year-old Chinese player Liu Hongyu at the English Institute of Sport.

A fine 81 break saw White level up at 1-1, but he shipped the next four frames with world No. 80 Liu producing runs of 74, 60 and 135 in moving 5-1 ahead.

The Tooting player won the seventh frame, but Liu claimed the next two to leave himself three frames short of victory when the match resumes on Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old former world junior champion Stan Moody suffered a 10-6 defeat after losing the last five frames to Mohammed Shehab in a 10-6 loss.

Elsewhere, world No. 64 Mark Davis boosted his hopes of securing his tour card for next season as he built up an 8-1 overnight lead against Andrew Pagett while former European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson leads Liam Davies 7-2.

Latest World Championship results

Mohammed Shehab 10-6 Stan MoodyGao Yang 10-6 Ishpreet Singh Chadha Peng Yisong 10-5 M PhetmalaikulAshley Carty 10-4 Liam GrahamLiam Pullen 10-3 Anton Kazakov Alfie Burden 10-1 Rebecca KennaStream top snooker action, including the World Championship, live and on-demand on discovery+.