Australian qualifier Quinten Hann produced the shock of the World Snooker Championship so far by knocking out world number nine Paul Hunter last night.

Hann, a first round loser in two previous visits to The Crucible, edged to a 10-9 win after coming back from 6-3 down at the resumption of play.

He reeled off three frames in a row to level and went in front for the first time at 8-7. Hunter made breaks of 101 and 92 to force a last frame decider, but Hann held his nerve to win.

Hann admitted afterwards that he thought at one stage he was heading for another first round exit.

"I didn't think I had any chance from 6-3 down," he said. "But I played reasonably well and I had a lot of luck."

Hann now plans to relax before his next match against Stephen Lee which starts on Sunday.

"I think I might go to London for a couple of days to try and forget about snooker," he said.

Hunter, who underwent surgery just a week ago to remove some cysts, refused to use that as an excuse.

"I'm not putting it down to that because generally it didn't bother me," he said.

The ever-popular Jimmy White thrashed Dominic Dale 10-2 to cruise into the second round.

White, a beaten finalist at The Crucible on six occasions, wasted little time in wrapping up victory after leading 6-2 from the first session.

Even the appearance of a male streaker in the opening frame of the evening failed to put White off as he secured the four frames required in just over an hour.

Despite the margin of victory, White feels there is still plenty of room for improvement. "It didn't happen for either of us and when I got 30 or 40 in front, I put him down the table," he said.

"But if you're going to win a competition like this, you've got to take these scrappy games on board. I kept myself focused and I was very pleased with my concentration." White now faces Matthew Stevens in the second round.

Stephen Lee held off Chris Small's determined challenge to complete a 10-7 victory. Small cut Lee's lead to just one frame at 6-5 after trailing 5-1, but a snooker on the pink in the 13th frame proved to be the turning point. Lee potted pink and black to win 57-56 and claimed two of the next four frames to seal victory.

"Thank God he gave me a few chances too many. Chris is a very good match player and if he takes his chances he's very hard to beat," Lee said.