The Whirlwind Still Blows: Jimmy White Opens 47th Pro Season With Century and Victory
A Legend Rolls Back the Years in Leicester
There is a moment in every Jimmy White match — you know the one — where the cue ball seems to move with a kind of lazy authority, rolling into position as though it has nowhere better to be. At the Mattioli Arena in Leicester on Wednesday, that moment arrived in the sixth and seventh frames of his opening contest against Sean O'Sullivan. White, 62 years old and embarking on his 47th season as a professional player, compiled a break of 112 and followed it swiftly with 59 to close out a 6-2 victory. It was, for anyone who has ever loved this sport, exactly the sort of start to a new season you hope for.
White first joined the World Snooker Tour in 1980 — the same year that a then-unknown teenager from south London started turning heads on the amateur circuit. He went on to become one of the most cherished figures the game has ever produced: ten ranking titles, a Masters crown, and an emotional hold over snooker fans that has endured across five decades. The six World Championship final defeats at the Crucible — each one feeling more heartbreaking than the last — never diminished his popularity. If anything, they deepened it. White has always played snooker the way he lives, with generosity and flair, and people have never stopped willing him on.
A Slow Start, Then the Gears Engage
It would be wrong to pretend Wednesday's match was one-way traffic from the off. O'Sullivan — not that O'Sullivan — took the opening frame to settle any early nerves, and for a moment it looked as though White might face a longer afternoon than he'd have liked. But the Londoner found his rhythm across the next three frames, building a 3-1 lead by the mid-session interval that gave him a cushion to work with.
O'Sullivan, who had returned to the professional circuit just last month after earning his tour card back through Q School, refused to simply roll over. A run of 51 in the fifth frame gave him a foothold, and the match had the shape of a genuine contest. Then White won the sixth, and something shifted. The century break in the seventh — fluent, unhurried, the kind of knock that suggests a man who has been putting the hours in on the practice table — effectively ended the contest. A contribution of 59 in the eighth wrapped things up.
Speaking afterwards, White was characteristically warm about both the result and his opponent. "I'm delighted with the win and I played well," he told World Snooker Tour. "We go again tomorrow." He also had kind words for the man on the other side of the table: "I'm happy too for Sean to be back on the tour, because snooker is in his blood." It is a line that could as easily apply to White himself.
The China Open Returns — and the Season Begins in Earnest
The context for all of this is a tournament returning to the calendar after a seven-year absence. The China Open, last held in 2019 before the pandemic stripped it away, is back — and this time the main event is scheduled for Taiyuan. The qualifying rounds in Leicester follow a best-of-11 format across four preliminary rounds, with higher seeds entering at later stages, mirroring the structures used at the UK Championship and World Championship.
For White, the prize beyond Wednesday's win is a second-round meeting with Louis Heathcote, and with it a genuine opportunity to push deeper into the draw and keep alive any hope of cracking the top 16 before the main stages in China. It is the kind of target that might seem modest measured against the peaks of his career, but which speaks to everything admirable about his continued commitment to the game.
Elsewhere in Leicester, the first day of the 2026/27 season produced a busy schedule of results. Alfie Burden was ruthlessly efficient, whitewashing Patrick Whelan 6-0, while fellow Englishman Andrew Higginson came through 6-4 against Leone Crowley. Three of the four players who graduated from the Q Tour also made winning starts — Jamie Clarke, Ashley Carty, and Craig Steadman all advancing. Thailand's Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, back on the main tour as a professional for the first time since 2016, was also among the day's participants as a new season opened its doors to returning faces and fresh ones alike.
But the image that lingers from day one is of Jimmy White, cue in hand, compiling a century break in his 47th professional season. Some players retire gracefully. Others simply refuse to leave — and we are all the richer for it.
