White and Drago sent packing in Newport

Both fell to Chinese opponents in the afternoon session on Friday, with Drago whitewashed 4-0 by Liang Wenbo while multiple-time World Championship runner-up White was ousted 4-2 by Zhang Anda.

Fellow veteran Steve Davis progressed with a 4-2 triumph over Kurt Maflin in the same session, and Nigel Bond had eased through 4-1 against Joel Walker in the morning.

Marco Fu, losing finalist in last week’s German Masters to Ali Carter, saw off Passakorn Suwannawat 4-1 to advance in the evening session which also saw Mark King and Mark Allen move on to the next preliminary round.

The Welsh Open runs from 11-17 February, with a total prize fund of £250,000.

Morning session

Rod Lawler 4-3 Li Yan

Nigel Bond 4-1 Joel Walker

Peter Lines 1-4 Pankaj Advani

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-3 Michael Leslie

Mark Joyce 4-2 Tian Pengfei

Anthony Hamilton 4-1 Sean O'Sullivan

Afternoon session

Liang Wenbo 4-0 Tony Drago

Alfie Burden 4-3 Scott Donaldson

Jimmy White 2-4 Zhang Anda

Alan McManus 4-2 Jamie O'Neill

Jimmy Robertson 4-3 Robbie Williams

Steve Davis 4-2 Kurt Maflin

Evening session

Mark King 4-0 Aditya Mehta

Marco Fu 4-1 Passakorn Suwannawat

Martin Gould 3-4 Sam Baird

Robert Milkins 4-2 Paul S Davison

Mark Allen 4-2 Barry Pinches

Jamie Cope 0-4 Ian Burns