Dominic Dale battles past Jimmy White at Scottish Open, Zhou Yuelong defeats Andrew Higginson

Dominic Dale beat Jimmy White 4-1 in the second round of the Scottish Open on Thursday afternoon.

Dale was 61-0 up before White was able to get some points on the board, but after adding 12 he returned to the table once more and potted a wonderful red to the top-right pocket to start a new break, only for things to break down once more after a poor positional shot from potting the yellow, leaving a narrow angle on two reds by the pink spot.

At the start of the second frame, White conceded a couple of fouls with Dale happy to let his opponent look for a way out, trapped behind the lower-scoring colours with no clear path to the reds.

Dale made hay when he was finally ready to take to the table and went 41 clear before White had a chance making a break of 16 before he rattled the pocket in the bottom left with a red.

The Spaceman had enjoyed a streak of good form at the Shoot Out, where he finished as a quarter-finalist, and he made a swift break of 35 to claim the frame to level.

In the early exchanges of the third frame, Dale was put back in at 8-1 ahead, but the colours had all skewed to the left-hand side of the table, with the majority of the reds pooled in the bottom left, leaving a challenge to build.

At 18-1, with the pair exchanging attempted snookers behind the yellow, Dale accidentally rolled the white into the blue, lurking over the pocket. The next bout of stalemate was broken, finally, when Dale was able to glide a red into the middle pocket, and some adept play thereafter took the third frame 70-23.

White moved 56-24 clear with a break falling just short of a half century as the scrappy play continued, ending with an attempted pot on the red with a rest into the bottom right, and a fluid 45 from Dale edged him back in front to take him just one frame from victory.

In the final frame, White sunk the white as he potted the black with a powerful effort, putting Dale back in with a 55-29 lead, but was quickly back in to add six before getting stuck on three reds clustered against the cushion.

At 70-43 White still had a slim chance of battling back to stay in the game but when he potted the white again, the error-strewn match came to a close, and Dale progressed.

In one of the other afternoon matches, Zhou Yuelong defeated Andrew Higginson 4-2, with Rory Thor v Ashley Carty and Gary Wilson v Joe O’Connor – last year’s two finalists – still to complete their matches.