White's spiritless frame of mind

Snooker: Jimmy White admitted to suffering from a post World Championship hangover in Bangkok yesterday.

"It's demoralising to play at the moment," said the Whirlwind, after being hammered 5-1 by Ken Doherty in his opening match of the £282,000 Thailand Masters.

And White agreed that his 107 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. Doherty now faces either 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.

Williams goes forward to face John Parrott, the 5-2 conqueror of Joe Perry. Judge recorded a 5-3 victory over Dave Harold.

Cycling: Belgian Nico Mattan won the 6.2 km prologue of the Paris-Nice race in Nevers yesterday, taking his first leader's jersey in a major cycling race.

The Cofidis rider upstaged pre-race favourite David Millar of Britain to win in seven minutes 48 seconds.

Cycling: Ciaran Power yesterday recorded his first placing with the St Quentin professional team when he finished an excellent fourth in the world-ranked GP de Lillers in Brittany.

With 10 kilometres to go, eventual winner Jean Michel Tessier (Cofidis) and Sven Tertendera (Festina) forged ahead, and at the line Power proved second-fastest of a trio of chasing riders.