Jimmy White 6-2 Dave Harold
Tooting born Jimmy White claims he is still a match for anyone after he rolled back the years to beat Dave Harold in the UK Championship first round.
The match was tied 2-2 at the mid-session interval but 52-year-old White won the final four frames, one with a classy century break, to complete the victory.
The Whirlwind will take on Chinese world number three Ding Junhui and admitted he will have to be at his best if he is to progress.
“I will have to play very well to beat Ding but on my day I can still beat anybody and these matches are why I still play the game,” said White.
“Ding is one of the top four players in the world, with Ronnie O’Sullivan, Neil Robertson and Mark Selby, so it is good to have a crack at him.”
Vintage stuff from Jimmy White today as he beat Dave Harold 6-2 with a top break of 110 at the @Coral UK Championship pic.twitter.com/2LfEYHnCkl
— World Snooker (@WorldSnooker1) November 26, 2014
The first four frames were shared in a scrappy opening session with world number 67 Harold hitting the only 50 plus break with a 74 in the fourth frame.
The break seemed to revitalise White and he raced into a 4-2 lead with breaks of 63 and 110 before calmly closing out the match to progress to the second round.
White is playing for the first time since publicly stated he feels he can still win a world title, and says he still loves playing snooker.
He said: “I am playing okay. It is just getting it together on the day. I have always carried on playing and I have always enjoyed practising.
“I have had the odd spell where I didn’t want to play anymore but it didn’t last for more than a couple of weeks at a time.”
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Feature image courtesy of Global Panorama, with thanks
