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| Venue: York Barbican Dates: 12-20 November Coverage: BBC One, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, BBC Sport website and app |
Neil Robertson and John Higgins were both beaten on another day of shocks in the UK Championship first round.
World number two Robertson lost 6-2 to Joe Perry, at 48 the second oldest player in the draw after 60-year-old Jimmy White.
Higgins, ranked fifth in the world, went down 6-4 to Tom Ford.
And Barry Hawkins was beaten 6-3 by Ding Junhui, meaning four of the world’s top 10 have exited on the opening two days in York.
Englishman Perry won the first frame with a 102 break against Australia’s Robertson, who was trailing 4-0 before he could pull one back.
Perry took only his second ranking title when he won the Welsh Open in March.
That was the second shock of the tournament after last year’s champion Zhao Xintong was beaten by Sam Craigie on Saturday.
Masters champion Robertson was struggling with illness, but said there were no excuses for the defeat.
“Joe played really well in the balls, I’d have to be at my absolute best to win today,” Robertson, a three-time UK Championship winner, told BBC 5 Live.
Perry, who will play the winner of Stuart Bingham’s match against Liam Highfield in the last 16, was pleased to continue his fine form after thrashing Graeme Dott 6-0 in qualifying.
“Even after all these years I’m still learning, you can’t play perfectly all the time and just get on with it,” he said.
Last year’s beaten finalist Luca Brecel defeated Lyu Haotian 6-4.
The Belgian will meet Ford after his surprise win over four-time world champion Higgins in the evening session.
Higgins’ defeat means there will be no Scottish players in the last 16 of this event for the first time since 1987.
“The first five or six frames were embarrassing,” said world number 32 Ford.
“My hands were freezing so I had a packet of hand warmers and once I started using those I warmed up and felt more comfortable.”
Hawkins led three-time champion Ding 3-1 with a top break of 85 but Ding took control after the interval, winning five frames in a row with breaks of 105, 62, 122, 72 and 91.
Ding, who became the seventh player in snooker history to rack up 600 century breaks, is through to the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time since last season’s Gibraltar Open and now meets Mark Williams or Jamie Clarke.
