Jimmy White continues impressive form to qualify for Welsh Open, Graeme Dott stuns Gary Wilson, Ken Doherty through

Jimmy White won his solitary Masters title in 1984, but the Whirlwind of old London town continues to drink from the fountain of youth on the old green baize. So far this season, it feels like he has been guzzling from it.

Confidence breeds momentum and White momentarily disrupted his analysis work for Eurosport at the 49th Masters at Alexandra Palace to show he has lost none of the desire that saw him defeat Terry Griffiths 9-5 to win the prized invitational event at the Wembley Conference Centre 39 years ago.

Ken Doherty – Masters finalist in 1999 and 2000 – will also make the trip to Llandudno after completing a 4-3 win over Thepchaiya Un-Nooh while 2006 world champion Graeme Dott showed he has lost none of his matchplay skills with a 4-3 victory against Scottish Open winner Gary Wilson.

Wilson rolled in breaks of 51, 89 and 56, but was forced to watch the Scotsman claim the last two frames to advance.

World No. 24 Tom Ford – who lost 6-3 to Ding Junhui in the UK semi-finals – suffered a 4-1 defeat to Ireland’s Aaron Hill that saw him depart the tournament by losing the final frame on the debatable three-miss rule.

Matches involving the top 16 seeds at the fourth Home Nations event of the season are held over until the final venue with world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan meeting Oliver Lines on Monday 13 February.

Latest Welsh Open qualifying results

• Jenson Kendrick 2-4 Andy Lee
• Gary Wilson 3-4 Graeme Dott
• Muhammad Asif 1-4 Joe O’Connor
• Zak Surety 3-4 Hammad Miah
• Tom Ford 1-4 Aaron Hill
• Himanshu Jain 0-4 Mark Joyce
• Ken Doherty 4-3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
• Jimmy White 4-0 Craig Steadman
• Mark Davis 1-4 Chris Wakelin
• Jamie Jones 2-4 Rod Lawler
• Jimmy Robertson 3-4 Mohamed Ibrahim
• Dean Young 4-3 Gerard Greene
• Ryan Thomerson 4-2 Andrew Pagett
• Peter Lines 1-4 Yuan SiJun
• Daniel Wells 4-2 Dechawat Poomjaeng
• Anthony McGill 4-3 Lukas Kleckers

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