Paul Deaville targets pro ranks for 2023

But the reigning England Under-16 champion insisted he would learn plenty from the whitewash defeat – and targeted 2023 to join the professional ranks.

Reaching the last 16 saw Deaville, who turned 17 just last month, pocket £7,500 – but he was giving wily campaigner King 30 years and the Essex pro used all his experience to secure a 4-0 victory.

The teenager said: “It was a step learning curve for me tonight – and you could just see his experience at work. He’d get the upper hand in the safety battles and I got virtually no chances. Every time I put him in trouble he found a way out, and every time I was in trouble I couldn’t find one! I only really missed two chances all match.

“I will remember it though, and learn from it. Mark will have had those moments all his career to learn to do that. He has shown me some respect in that sense.

“Once or twice I could have been more patient, but that’s something else to learn. But overall this can’t spoil what has been a great week. I went out and did my best.

“I want to finish my two-year course at college ideally, so maybe it would be great to get to 2023 and hopefully have a decision to make. That could be a decent time for me.

“There is a gap with the pros right now, and it is about closing that. Hopefully I might get a couple of top-up chances now.”

Deaville, who started out as a pool player and switched to snooker at 11, was not able to play in Q-School this year – the main route to the tour.

He has always had the full support of his parents with his father originally from the West Midlands and mother moving to the UK from Thailand 20 years ago.

Deaville’s heroes are been Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins – plus Mark Williams, who he was due to face in round one before the three-time world champion withdrew with Covid.

The new talk of snooker made the most of his early good fortune at the event.

After Williams withdrew with illness, he was handed instead a tie against another amateur in the shape of 22-year-old Mark Lloyd from Gosport - who he whitewashed 4-0.

Next up was talented Chinese player Chang Bingyu, and after seeing a 3-1 lead disappear the Merseyside youngster held his nerve superbly to take the decider with a break of 64.

And he then beat China’s world No29 Zhao Xintong also in a final-frame decider 4-3 in the small hours of Thursday morning before returning later the same day to face King.