Favorites, Jimmy White, Ali Carter, and Luca Brecel were all eliminated from the 2020 World Snooker Championship qualifiers.

It was an eventful weekend in the race for the qualifications spots of the 2020 World Snooker Championship, as three huge favourites crashed out of the round.

Jimmy White had his hopes of making a remarkable return to the Crucible Theatre for the first time since 2006 crushed after he suffered a 6-1 defeat to 44-year-old Robert Milkins at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Jimmy “The Whirlwind” White is currently ranked 122 and was hugely tipped to qualify for the next round. The 58-year-old is a six-time world finalist; he finished as runner-up in 1984, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994.

In this qualifiers, he had hoped of making a fairytale comeback to the snooker’s biggest stage. He was in good form early in the tournament as he registered victories over Russian amateur Ivan Kakovskii and former Shoot Out winner Michael Georgiou in the first two qualifying rounds.

However, his hopes of a return to the Crucible theater were quickly dashed by Gloucester’s world number 51 Milkins, who exploited his opponent’s inability to score heavily enough.

Milkins made his way by getting breaks of 50, 81, and 70 in winning the closing final five frames from 1-1.

Milkins will now come up against Ashley Carty over the best of 19 frames today as they battle for a place at the Crucible, which begins on Friday.

Belgium’s leading player and Championship League winner Luca Brecel was also eliminated after making three centuries in a 6-5 loss to Fergal O’Brien.

World number 18 and two-times world finalist Ali Carter surprisingly lost 6-3 to world number 86 Louis Heathcote. The loss ended his run of reaching the Crucible for the past 17 years.

Louis Heathcote will face 1994 Masters champion Alan McManus in the next round.

Written by: Collins Nwokolo