Welsh Open 2023: Jimmy White suffers agonising loss as John Higgins coasts through to last 32 in Llandudno
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Updated 15/02/2023 at 19:19 GMT
Jimmy White lost a battling match against Tian Pengfei 4-2 in the second round of the Welsh Open in Llandudno. Meanwhile, four-time world champion John Higgins continued his strong showing this week with an impressive 4-0 win over Martin Gould. Stream top snooker action, including the Welsh Open, live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.co.uk.
'What about that for a shot!' - Higgins makes superb clearance to double his lead
Jimmy White suffered a battling 4-2 defeat to Tian Pengfei in a cagey second-round match at the Welsh Open in Llandudno.
White, who has been much improved this season after reaching the main draw of the UK Championship and German Masters, had good chances to win most of the frames.
However, it wasn’t meant to be and it was Tian that got over the line and will play Ali Carter in the last 32 on Thursday afternoon.
Tian showed he was in good form with breaks of 41 and 21 to take the opening frame, but the start of the second saw neither player pot a ball for 14 minutes.
Eventually Tian got in after a wayward shot from White, but wasn’t able to make a big break this time around. When White got back to the table, he knocked in a great long red and two scoring visits saw him go 61-23 in front.
The Chinese player put White in a very difficult snooker and the Whirlwind missed four times, only to leave the red on, so it was now 65-47 with one red left on the table.
Another snooker this time saw White go in-off, so Tian was looking good to double his lead. However, he didn’t get position on the brown and White laid a great snooker of his own to create the opening and level the match.
White began to find his scoring boots with big breaks of 49 and 57 to go 2-1 up but Tian hit back with an initial 66 to level the scores.
Frame five was huge. A safety error from White left Tian with a simple starter in the fifth frame, but he missed it and couldn’t believe he had.
White went 49-0 up but Tian roared back and was 67 ahead with just four colours remaining. The brown, blue and pink all went in for White but he left himself slightly low on the black.
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'I missed some pressure balls' - White reacts to his tough defeat to Tian
He just missed it and Tian punished him by knocking it in with a long diagonal shot across the table.
Tian was on top for most of the sixth frame and closed out the match with several scoring visits to the table to defeat White.
Higgins' great Welsh Open form continues
Meanwhile, John Higgins stormed into the third round of the Welsh Open by whitewashing Martin Gould 4-0 with another impressive performance.
Having won his Championship League group last week, Higgins has come into the final Home Nations Series tournament on form after a relatively disappointing season.
Higgins immediately meant business on Wednesday afternoon in Llandudno as he slotted in a long red into the right corner and made a frame-winning break of 89.
Gould was 54 points in front in the next frame but got the cue ball stuck in the pack of reds which meant end of break.
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'Another terrific break' - More brilliance from Higgins to lead 3-0 against Gould
The world No. 45 thought he had played a good safety with the white on the bottom cushion, but Higgins had other ideas and brilliantly potted a red into the left centre and went on to make another big break of 68, including a double on the final brown, to steal the frame.
A superb 97 and a 66 in the final two frames from the Wizard of Wishaw saw him cruise through to the next round where he will play Sanderson Lam.
Elsewhere, a relieved Judd Trump battled past Louis Heathcote 4-2, Jack Lisowski whitewashed Australia’s Ryan Thomerson and Barry Hawkins beat Ben Woollaston by the same scoreline.
There were also victories for Mark Allen, Ali Carter and Hossein Vafaei.
Later on Wednesday, the last 32 begins with Ronnie O’Sullivan first up on table one against Rod Lawler. Mark Selby is also in action against Robert Milkins.
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