Jimmy White produced a vintage performance to coast into the last 16 of the £440,000 British Open in Plymouth yesterday. White, down to 18 in the world-rankings, reeled off breaks of 115, 81 and 96 in the last three frames of a 5-2 victory over former world champion Ken Doherty to the delight of a packed house at the Pavilions.
"When you've been around as long as I have you get frustrated if things aren't going your way, but I'm delighted with that performance," a jubilant White said.
Doherty's fellow Dubliner Fergal O'Brien, the defending champion, lost out 5-2 to Steve Davis.
World number two John Higgins has hit out at the way the game is being run, after beating Anthony Davies 5-1.
Higgins claimed that the sport has no future if new sponsors are not found. Tobacco sponsorship, on which snooker has relied heavily for a quarter of a century, will be banned from 2003.
"It's been hard to concentrate recently because of all the internal wranglings going on in snooker," Higgins said.
