Fourteen-year-old Michal Szubarczyk was denied a place in snooker history as he was narrowly defeated in the first round of World Championship qualifying at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
The Polish teenager was looking to break Ronnie O’Sullivan’s long-standing record by becoming the youngest player to qualify for the World Championship at the Crucible.
He lost 10-8 to Scotland’s Dean Young, who will face Stan Moody in the second round.
Young stormed into a 4-0 lead before Szubarczyk found his rhythm and won three of the next five frames to trail 6-3 at the interval.
Szubarczyk won five of the following eight frames but could not overturn the deficit against the 23-year-old.
Seven-time winner O’Sullivan is the youngest qualifier in history at the Crucible, aged 16 in 1992.
Szubarczyk rose to prominence last month when he reached the final of the open-age event at the European Championship, where he lost to 34-year-old Liam Highfield.
Szubarczyk has been offered a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour.
White keeps World Championship hopes alive
Six-time World Championship runner-up Jimmy White staged an impressive comeback to beat amateur Anton Kazakov 10-9 in a thrilling contest that finished at 01:20 BST.
Englishman White, 62, has not qualified for the tournament since 2006.
He punched the table after forfeiting the third frame for three misses.
Trailing 7-3 after losing five successive frames, he then won six in a row, which included a break of 126.
Ukraine’s Kazakov, 20, won the next two to set up a final-frame decider despite having only two breaks of 50 or more in the match.
White’s most recent title was the Players Championship in 2004.
The World Championship begins on 19 April at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
How World Championship qualifying works
The qualifying event starts with 144 players.
There are 16 places on offer at the 32-player World Championship, with 16 players qualified automatically via their world ranking.
There are four qualifying rounds and players begin their campaigns at different stages, depending on their ranking.