White suffers early exit to Totten at British Open as Robertson eases through

Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White suffered a 4-0 defeat on Thursday to Scotland’s Chris Totten in the qualifying round for the British Open.

The six-time world championship finalist won the British Open in 1987 and 1992, but was outplayed by world No. 100 Totten, who produced breaks of 63, 64, 86 and 87 to book his trip to the last-64 stage at the Centaur in Cheltenham next month.

One-time world champion Ken Doherty also suffered an early exit as he went down 4-2 to China’s world No. 58 Xu Si, who rolled in 120 and 97 on his way to hitting back from 2-1 behind, after Doherty had produced a couple of 60-plus breaks.

But 23-time ranking event winner Neil Robertson secured his place in the last 64 with a 4-1 win over Welshman Andrew Pagett, whose 59 break in the fourth frame was cancelled out by a fine 62 from the Australian icon.

Elsewhere at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester, Ricky Walden edged out Liu Hongyu 4-3 with Zhou Yuelong running out a 4-2 winner against Fan Zhengyi.

The final stage of the British Open takes place between September 23-29. All top 16 seeds will begin their respective campaigns in Cheltenham, with 26-time ranking event winner Mark Williams bidding to defend the title he collected with a 10-7 victory in the final against Mark Selby last season.