World champion Stuart Bingham is out of the International Championship after a 6-2 first round defeat to Yu Delu in Daqing.
Yu only had one break above 50, a 72 in the first frame, but took advantage of an out-of-sorts Bingham who missed several chances to stamp his authority on the contest.
It means that both the top two seeds have exited the tournament in the opening two days following defending champion Ricky Walden’s loss to Tian Pengfei on Sunday.
Tian, who has been performing really well on the circuit of late following his run to the final of the Ruhr Open, supported his victory over Walden with a 6-2 success against countryman Cao Yupeng.
The 28 year-old will take on another Chinese competitor next in Liang Wenbo, guaranteeing that the local fans will have one of their own to cheer for at – least until the last 16 stage.
It could be a lot longer than that, though, especially given the fact that the adored Ding Junhui bagged a scrappy 6-2 triumph over Craig Steadman to safely reach the second round.
Elsewhere, a quartet of former world champions all negotiated their opening clashes to advance into the last 32.
Australian Open champion John Higgins beat young Zhao Xintong 6-2, the same winning margin that Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy enjoyed over Martin O’Donnell and Luca Brecel respectively.
Meanwhile, 2002 Crucible king Peter Ebdon wasted little time in dispatching of Ken Doherty as he romped to a comprehensive 6-0 drubbing of the Irishman.
One of the most interesting scorelines on Monday came courtesy of Jack Lisowski’s 6-5 victory over Ali Carter.
Lisowski took the opening frame but subsequently found himself one frame down on four occasions before superb runs of 100 and 62 sealed his biggest win in quite some time.
The 24 year-old has been long tipped as a star of the future but has struggled for a couple of seasons now.
Expectation has risen somewhat again since he began working with renowned coach Terry Griffiths at the start of the season and it’ll be intriguing to see if this result over a player of Carter’s calibre can act as a springboard to further success in this tournament.
In a busy day of action in China, Welsh trio Dominic Dale, Jamie Jones and Lee Walker all emerged victorious from their first bouts while Englishmen Joe Perry, Oliver Lines and David Gilbert also progressed – the latter with a late 6-5 toppling of Xiao Guodong.
The last encounter to finish in the last 64 was between Ben Woollaston and Robbie Williams with the former coming from behind to steal a 6-5 triumph.
Tomorrow sees all of the second round played as the field gets whittled down to just 16 and we begin to learn who the main contenders might be come the end of the week.
