Defending Champion Alex Lely of Holland successfully opened his account at this year's World Masters as he came from 3 - 0 down to win 7 - 3 against crowd favourite Jimmy White. The Plague from the Hague now faces either Corey Deuel (USA) or Radoslaw Babica (Poland) in tomorrow's last eight match.

Lely, 27, who last year defeated Efren Reyes in the final to put himself firmly on the world pool map, looked a little shaky early on as White moved into a 3 - 0 lead.

White who didn't manage to find his break cue until the second rack, made too many errors for a player of Lely's calibre and in the end the Dutchman won comfortably.

Commented Lely, " It's time I started playing good right away because I'm tired of losing a few racks before I start to play. In the end though, I'm happy with the result as I haven't really played since Cardiff and my cue got nicked in France three weeks ago so this is a new one.

" That's the first match out of the way and I feel confident that I can go on and win this title again. It's only one win but against a guy like Jimmy white I'd say it was a good one. "

Play continues this afternoon with World Championship Runner-Up Ismael Paez (Mexico) facing Germany's Thomas Engert.

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