SHEFFIELD, April 21: Six-time losing finalist Jimmy White will have to qualify for next year's world snooker championship after being knocked out by David Gray in the first round on Thursday.

White failed to mount a comeback after trailing 6-3 overnight and went down 10-5.

“I really did struggle and it was very frustrating,” White told reporters.

After dropping out of the world's top 32, White will now have to win two qualifiers in order to play at The Crucible next year.

“I still love this game and feel I'm good enough to win,” said the 43-year-old Briton. “I'll go to Prestatyn, give it my all and hopefully I'll be back here next year.”

Qualifier Ryan Day knocked out number 15 seed Joe Perry, with a 10-3 victory to set up a second round clash with world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan.

“If I had a choice obviously I wouldn't choose to play Ronnie,” said Welshman Day. “But if I can get off to a good start, we'll see what goes from there because I haven't come here to make up the numbers.”

Defending champion Shaun Murphy took a 6-2 lead over six-time winner Steve Davis. Murphy was in front from the start after compiling a break of 106 in the opening frame and gave

Davis few chances to score heavily.

In the opening second round match Australian qualifier Neil Robertson opened up a 6-2 lead over Stephen Lee at the end of the first session.

Thursday’s results:

Second round (best of 25 frames): Neil Robertson (Australia) leads Stephen Lee (England) 6-2 (66-53, 74-24, 109-0, 0-72, 0-135, 74-0, 105-1, 74-7); Shaun Murphy (England) leads Steve Davis (England) 6-2 (115-1, 70-6, 63-28, 0-89, 63-61, 71-30, 69-19, 14-67).

First round (best of 19 frames): David Gray (England) beat Jimmy White (England) 10-5 (65-36, 66-58, 114-17, 62-36, 8-83, 4-99, 75-48, 7-89, 73-49, 56-48, 64-10, 52-47, 49-62, 0-94, 62-34); Ryan Day (Wales) beat Joe Perry (England) 10-3 (2-124, 74-15, 86-21, 75-26, 62-16, 70-1, 78-61, 80-25, 24-80, 75-49, 30-96, 71-61, 60-59).—Reuters