Jimmy White storms into the last-32 of China Open 2011 – Snooker news
Jimmy White is flying to Beijing to play in the last-32 battle of China Open 2011 against compatriot, Mark Selby at Peking University Student Gymnasium, Beijing. White defeated Welshman, Dominic Dale 5-2 in the qualifiers held at World Snooker Academy, Sheffield,
in the afternoon session.
The 2010 World Senior champion dominated the table from the beginning, striking successive three frames of 65-9, 75-0 and 64-24, to get a 3-0 lead. However, Dale bounced back into the game and fired a century break of 120 to click the frame 1-124 and capitalise
3-1.
In the 5th frame, White regained his three-frame lead over Dale with a decent 48 break to keep the lead at 4-1. Dale took the scrappy 6th frame 18-57 to decrease the Whirlwind’s lead to 4-2, but the effort went in vein as White took
the 7th frame, 56-53, snatching the match 5-2 to surge into the televised stages of the China Open 2011.
The current season for Jimmy White has not been good so far. He could not even score a half century break during the match but his consistency secured him the win. In the last four ranking tournaments, he reached the televised stages in three of the events
but could not surge into the final stages.
White seeded 57 after the Welsh Open 2011. He then defeated Liu Chuang 5-3, Peter Lines 5-3 and Dominic Dale 5-2 in the qualifiers and with these victories, he seeded 48 in the rankings. If he wins a couple of more games, he will be in top-16 in the upcoming
ranking tournaments.
Ken Doherty, the 1997 world champion, qualified for the last-32 stage after whitewashing Isaara Kachaiwong of Thailand. He will meet Scotland’s Graeme Dott, 2010 world championship runner-up, in the first-round match. Barry Hawkins will face the world champion,
Neil Robertson in last-32 round. He clinched his victory 5-2 over Joe Swail in the qualifiers.
Stephen Lee, after a thriller qualifier, made it to the first stage of China Open 2011. He occupied the spot crashing Alfie Burden 5-4 in the last-48 match. Stephen Lee will be up against the defending champion, Mark Williams, in the last-32 stage.
The tournament’s televised stages will be held from March 28 to April 3 at Peking University Student Gymnasium, Beijing. Mark Williams, the defending champion, John Higgins, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Ding Junhui are favourites to grab the title
in Beijing.
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