MARK Allen suffered a 6-2 defeat to Xiao Guodong in the last 32 of the International Championship in Nanjing.
Antrim’s world number three, 6-2 win over Cork’s Aaron Hill in the previous round, was outplayed by the world number 18, falling 3-0 behind as his opponent registered breaks of 87 and 77.
He did cut the deficit by winning the next two frames but runs of 56, 50 and 73 closed out the match for Guodong, who now faces Jack Lisowski.
China’s Pang Junxu made back-to-back centuries to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-4. O’Sullivan fought back from 4-2 down to level the scores, but the seven-time world champion failed to pot a single ball in the last two frames.
Pang made breaks of 120 and 123 to seal his place in the last 16 and looked on course to make a maximum 147 break in the ninth frame.
The 24-year-old ran out of position on the final red and collided with the yellow in potting it, but potted a thin black from long range and then rattled the yellow in the jaws of both corner pockets.
Pang will face Jackson Page in the next round after the Welshman beat Ali Carter 6-4, while John Higgins conceded just 31 points in the first five frames as he thrashed Matthew Stevens 6-1.
Chris Wakelin made two centuries and further breaks of 60, 85 and 63 as he beat former world champion Shaun Murphy 6-3, while world number one Judd Trump defeated Joe O’Connor 6-4.
China’s Xu Si delighted the home crowd with the second 147 of his career as he beat Ryan Day 6-2 in a high-scoring contest.
Xu, who also made a maximum in UK Championship qualifying last year, is in line for the £5,000 high break prize after clearing the table in the sixth frame and also made breaks of 53, 101, 62, 69 and 112.
World champion Kyren Wilson also made three centuries as he beat Wu Yize 6-4, while Ding Junhui whitewashed Hossein Vafaei 6-0 and Barry Hawkins defeated Neil Robertson 6-1.
