And White agreed that his 10-7 defeat by Doherty’s fellow Dubliner Michael Judge in the final qualifying round of the Embassy World Championship eight days ago, had contributed to his latest setback.

"I’ve been practising, but there’s been no life in it at all," said the 38-year-old Londoner, still finding it difficult to come to terms with the fact that he will miss the Crucible for the first time since turning professional in 1981. "It’s very frustrating."

White snatched the first frame on the blue but Doherty replied by stealing the next on the black and, from that point, the contest slipped away from snooker’s most popular player.

Doherty controlled the following four frames, and finished with a 73 break, to set up a meeting with Nigel Bond or Fergal O’Brien.

While White struggled to approach anything like normal form, defending champion Mark Williams eased through by beating Nottingham’s Michael Holt 5-1.

After shading the first frame with a blue to black clearance, Williams put together breaks of 70, 62 and 97 on the way to his 11th consecutive match victory in a tournament he is trying to win for a third straight time.

A fortnight ago Williams was all doom and gloom after being trounced 7-1 by Stephen Hendry in the final of the Rothman’s Malta Grand Prix.

Williams, who beat Alan McManus in the 1999 final, then Hendry 9-5 from 5-2 down last year, goes forward to face John Parrott, the 5-2 conqueror of Joe Perry.