Jimmy White makes century but exits Wuhan Open snooker qualifiers

The qualifying rounds for the 2026 Wuhan Open got underway on Monday at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester with 24 matches completed.

Returning to the professional snooker calendar for a fourth consecutive year, the latest edition of the Wuhan Open has a format change with a tiered draw being used. This means the top 32 seeds all go straight through to round three of the competition (last 64), and on top of that, all the top 16 seeds have their opening assignments held over to the main venue stages which take place between August 23-29.

Snooker legend Jimmy White qualified for this event last year, but he won't be heading to the Far East this time after losing 5-3 to Chinese youngster Jiang Jun in a quality affair.

White - competing in a record-equalling 47th professional season - made a 65 break en route to taking the opening frame before Jiang compiled 67 and 76 in moving 2-1 up.

Either side of the mid-session interval, 64-year-old White racked up runs of 54 and 115 to nudge in front, but 20-year-old Jiang strung together the final three frames, wrapping up victory in style with a 102.

Due to the addition of Chinese amateur wildcards in the event, there was a preliminary round consisting of two matches where Ukrainian youngster Michael Larkov earned his first win as a professional.

The 17-year-old - who is on snooker's top-flight for the first time by virtue of winning the World Snooker Federation Junior Championship earlier this year - defeated recent Crucible qualifier Antoni Kowalski, 5-3, crafting an 85 in the decisive frame. Duane Jones was the other preliminary round victor.

A day after losing 6-5 on the final black to Tom Ford having led 5-0 in the final qualifying round for the China Open, Liam Highfield again suffered a comeback deciding frame defeat.

Highfield - who a couple of months ago navigated all four qualifying rounds to reach the Crucible - fashioned a 130 in the first frame of his tie with Gong Chenzhi before going on to establish a 3-0 advantage.

However, recent Q-School graduate Gong took four-in-a-row (113 break, frame six) to turn the tables and go in front. Highfield forced the contest all the way, but Gong produced three figures again in the decider with a 113 to advance.

Former Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown could be in a battle to save his professional tour card this season, and he picked up a handy victory by coming back from 4-2 down to pip Craig Steadman, 5-4.

In a clash between two of the sport's top young British talents, Liam Davies racked up efforts of 97, 91, and 58 in denying Liam Pullen, 5-3.

Gao Yang went one down to two-time world women's champion Bai Yulu but then made breaks of 59, 91, 100, 67, and 95 in a five-frame streak for victory.

Sam Craigie produced one of the performances of the day as he registered breaks of 105, 62, 131, 54 and 59 in getting past Julien Leclercq, 5-3.

Despite posting contributions of 134 and 112, Lyu Haotian was eliminated by Hammad Miah who went through by the odd frame.

Dylan Emery (126), Luo Zetao (104), and Ben Mertens (100) made tons during their victories.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 Wuhan Open qualifiers, visit our tournament information centre here.