Mark Selby crashed out of the English Open on Tuesday following a 4-2 defeat to Martin O’Donnell in Brentwood.
Selby, the reigning English Open champion, looked fatigued in what was his second match of the day at the Brentwood Centre.
The Leicester man had earlier beaten Xing Zihao in a held over qualifying-round fixture, but he ran out of gas against fellow Englishman O’Donnell.
Selby reached last week’s British Open final before eventually losing to Mark Williams in a late finish on Sunday.
Williams, meanwhile, continued his fine run of form with a resounding 4-0 success over Ian Burns.
The Welshman compiled breaks of 100, 94, 75, and 62 to comfortably reach the last 64 of this season’s fourth ranking event.
Among the high-profile players to already book their spots in the last 32 were Luca Brecel, Judd Trump, Mark Allen, and Ding Junhui.
The quartet recorded 4-1 scorelines to safely advance, maintaining their hopes of landing the £80,000 top prize at the weekend.
Elsewhere, Scottish trio John Higgins, Stephen Maguire and Graeme Dott qualified for the third round with respective 4-2 successes against James Cahill, Louis Heathcote and Barry Hawkins.
He Guoqiang continued to show his promise, again defying his rookie status to beat a notable name.
The Chinese cueist had already beaten Hawkins and Kyren Wilson this season, and he can now add Ryan Day to the list after pipping the Welshman in a decider.
He’s countryman Cao Yupeng enjoyed a completely different outcome, albeit one that has become familiar to him.
The former Scottish Open finalist thrashed David Gilbert 4-0 to make it four whitewash wins in a row to extend his frame-winning streak to 18.
Robert Milkins, Hossein Vafaei, and Gary Wilson were a few of the others who triumphed on what was a busy second day of action.
On Wednesday, the round of 64 concludes before the players in the top half of the draw then contest their last-32 games.
English Open draw
2023 ENGLISH OPEN DRAW
Round of 128
(held over fixtures)
Mark Selby 4-1 Xing Zihao
Ryan Day 4-2 Ashley Hugill
John Higgins 4-3 Marco Fu
Kyren Wilson 3-4 Oliver Lines
Judd Trump 4-0 Sean O’Sullivan
Robert Milkins 4-1 Robbie Williams
Barry Hawkins 4-1 Anthony Hamilton
Mark Allen 4-0 Mostafa Dorgham
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-0 Andrew Pagett
Jack Lisowski 4-1 Matthew Stevens
Elliot Slessor 4-2 Ryan Davies
Ali Carter 4-1 Jamie Clarke
Neil Robertson 2-4 Sanderson Lam
Shaun Murphy 3-4 Liu Hongyu
Mark Williams 4-0 Ian Burns
Ding Junhui 4-3 Ma Hailong
Luca Brecel 4-3 Stan Moody
Round of 64
Mark Selby 2-4 Martin O’Donnell
Stephen Maguire 4-2 Louis Heathcote
Ryan Day 3-4 He Guoqiang
Hossein Vafaei 4-3 Julien Leclercq
David Lilley 2-4 Mark Davis
James Cahill 2-4 John Higgins
Cao Yupeng 4-0 David Gilbert
Martin Gould 1-4 Oliver Lines
Judd Trump 4-1 Scott Donaldson
Jimmy Robertson 4-3 Allan Taylor
Robert Milkins 4-3 Adam Duffy
Tom Ford 2-4 Yuan Sijun
Hammad Miah 2-4 Ricky Walden
Graeme Dott 4-2 Barry Hawkins
Michael White 3-4 Matthew Selt
Wu Yize 1-4 Mark Allen
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-1 Jackson Page
Si Jiahui 4-0 Fergal O’Brien
Jack Lisowski 3-4 Elliot Slessor
Anthony McGill 1-4 Zhang Anda
Lukas Kleckers 1-4 Jenson Kendrick
Liam Pullen 0-4 Ali Carter
Andrew Higginson 2-4 Zhou Yuelong
Stuart Carrington 0-4 Sanderson Lam
Liu Hongyu 4-1 Joe O’Connor
Chris Wakelin 4-1 Jamie Jones
Mark Williams 4-3 Xiao Guodong
Dylan Emery 4-1 Oliver Brown
Dominic Dale 3-4 Gary Wilson
David Grace 1-4 Ding Junhui
Muhammad Asif 4-3 Fan Zhengyi
Andy Hicks 1-4 Luca Brecel
Round of 32
Martin O’Donnell 4-1 Stephen Maguire
He Guoqiang 4-3 Hossein Vafaei
Mark Davis 0-4 John Higgins
Cao Yupeng 2-4 Oliver Lines
Judd Trump 4-3 Jimmy Robertson
Robert Milkins 1-4 Yuan Sijun
Ricky Walden 4-3 Graeme Dott
Matthew Selt 4-2 Mark Allen
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-2 Si Jiahui
Elliot Slessor 1-4 Zhang Anda
Jenson Kendrick 0-4 Ali Carter
Zhou Yuelong 4-0 Sanderson Lam
Liu Hongyu 4-3 Chris Wakelin
Mark Williams 4-2 Dylan Emery
Gary Wilson 2-4 Ding Junhui
Muhammad Asif 0-4 Luca Brecel
Round of 16
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 He Guoqiang
John Higgins 4-1 Oliver Lines
Judd Trump 4-2 Yuan Sijun
Ricky Walden 3-4 Matthew Selt
Ronnie O’Sullivan 2-4 Zhang Anda
Ali Carter 1-4 Zhou Yuelong
Liu Hongyu 4-3 Mark Williams
Ding Junhui 4-3 Luca Brecel
Quarter-Finals
Martin O’Donnell 1-5 John Higgins
Judd Trump 5-1 Matthew Selt
Zhang Anda 5-4 Zhou Yuelong
Liu Hongyu 5-2 Ding Junhui
Semi-Finals
John Higgins 5-6 Judd Trump
Zhang Anda 6-2 Liu Hongyu
Final
Judd Trump 9-7 Zhang Anda
Featured photo credit: WST
