Reigning champion Mark Selby was an early casualty at the China Open as he lost 6-3 to Craig Steadman in their heldover qualifier.
Selby has endured a miserable season so far but returned to China having won here in 2017 and 2018 and with hopes of peaking just in time for the World Championship in Sheffield later this month.
However, the former world number one was to suffer another crushing defeat, losing four frames on the bounce as Steadman produced his best display of the campaign to come back from 3-2 down and seal an ultimately comfortable victory.
Barring a scrappy and ultimately decisive frame nine, the match was played to a high standard with Steadman knocking in a century break (108) in frame seven before pulling clear with more fearless potting and break-building.
Selby stuck to his task gamely, though, and made Steadman sweat when playing on for snookers in frame nine before the latter wrapped up the match with a couple more impressive long pots.
White ball knocked to floor, @markjesterselby knocked out 🥊 pic.twitter.com/jwKkVY1Gir
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) April 1, 2019
Mark Williams managed avoid a similar, overcoming stubborn resistance from Harvey Chandler to win 6-4 while Joe Perry and Mark King also progressed.
Ding dominates
Ding Junhui hasn't scaled his usual heights this season but his game looked in good working order as he breezed past Zhang Jiankang 6-1.
Ding was always on the front foot and finished the match in style, producing a fabulous clearance of 139 to set up a clash with James Wattana in round one.
This black from Ding Junhui 😵#ChinaOpen @Eurosport_UK pic.twitter.com/vTe3yHWeXR
— World Snooker (@WorldSnooker) April 1, 2019
More big breaks for on-song Bingham
In the first round proper, Stuart Bingham maintained his fine recent form by whitewashing Elliot Slessor 6-0 thanks to a couple of century breaks while Neil Roberston closed out his 6-2 defeat of Kishan H Hirani with a sparkling run of 138.
Ali Carter just edged a terrific tussle with Kurf Maflin to win 6-5 while David Gilbert's quest for automatic qualification for the World Championship began well as he overcame Matthew Selt 6-4.
