Whirlwind win

Jimmy White put old rival Stephen Hendry to the sword for the third time this year to breeze into the quarter-finals of the €600,000 European Open on the windswept Mediterranean island of Malta.

The Whirlwind blew up a storm of his own as he scored a 5-3 victory over seven-times world champion Hendry, who also fell victim to White in the Premier League in January and at the Masters at Wembley last month.

While Hendry had a nightmare of a day, fellow countryman John Higgins sailed into the quarter-finals with a second straight 5-0 victory.

Higgins goes forward to face compatriot Stephen Maguire who booked his ranking event quarter-final debut thanks to an unlikely 5-4 comeback against Joe Perry.