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SHEFFIELD (England), April 23: Crowd-favourite Jimmy White fought back from 6-3 down to beat Thailand’s James Wattana 10-6 in the first round of the World Snooker Championship on Wednesday.
White, six times a losing world finalist, reeled off seven frames in a row to set up a second round clash with seventh seed Stephen Lee.
Wattana, once ranked third in the world, offered no excuses in reflecting on another disappointing performance.
White is joined in the last 16 by Matthew Stevens who brushed aside Chris Small 10-3.
Meanwhile, Ronnie O’Sullivan entered the record books on Tuesday when he became the first player to record two 147 breaks at the Crucible Theatre.
His latest maximum break,in the first round clash with Hong Kong’s Marco Fu, comes six years after his first at the same venue.
O’Sullivan cleared the table in the seventh frame, a feat that could earn him 169,000 pounds ($266,600) — 147,000 for the maximum and 22,000 for the top break — if it is not equalled during the tournament.
It was an otherwise disappointing opening session for O’Sullivan, who won the world title two years ago, with Fu posting a surprise 6-3 lead at the close.
Fu now needs four more frames to record a shock win when play resumes on Wednesday afternoon.
World number four John Higgins was forced to work hard to beat qualifier Ian McCulloch in his first-round match.
McCulloch knocked in breaks of 100 and 94 to cut Higgins’ lead to just two frames at 9-7. But a missed yellow in the 17th frame allowed Higgins to clear up and complete a 10-7 win.
Higgins will face lowly-ranked qualifier Sean Storey in the second round, but he insists the tie is not a mere formality.
Another qualifier, Tony Drago from Malta, will resume in his first-round match against Joe Swail with a 5-4 lead.
Drago produced a typical display of attacking snooker to go 4-0 up before the dogged Swail rallied.
The world No.16 claimed four out of the last five frames of the session to cut Drago’s lead to a single frame.
First round results (best of 19 frames):
Finished o Wednesday:
Jimmy White (England) beat James Wattana (Thailand) 10-6. Frame scores (White first): 31-78, 1-58, 0-67, 49-74, 99-8, 69-48, 68-38, 53-58, 59-68, 83-13, 75-5, 67-32, 67-58, 99-0, 40-46 (Wattana conceded), 68-46.
Matthew Stevens (Wales) beat Chris Small (Scotland) 10-3. Frame scores (Stevens first): 93-13, 87-26, 69-5, 31-62, 60-37, 46-22, 5-114, 58-36, 63-25, 80-33, 25-83, 96-0, 72-7.—Reuters
