Top seed Mark Allen crashed out of the Duelbits Players Championship in the first round after struggling a 6-3 defeat to Joe O’Connor.
World quantity 37 O’Connor belied his standing because the lowest-ranked participant in the 16-man discipline with a quantity of cool clearances to e-book his place in the quarter-finals in Wolverhampton.
Three breaks in the 60s, together with an excellent 64 to steal body two, helped O’Connor right into a 4-1 lead earlier than Allen, who has gained three rankings titles this season, decreased his deficit with a break of 91.
A complete clearance of 132 took O’Connor 5-2 forward and though Allen gained body eight to maintain the match alive, he ran out of place in the subsequent and O’Connor stepped in with a forty five clearance to seal victory.
The 27-year-old from Leicester will face both Luca Brecel or Jack Lisowski in the final eight.
“I’m over the moon at the minute,” O’Connor instructed ITV4. “He beat me in the (World) Grand Prix so it was nice to get a little bit of revenge.
“I don’t think Mark played his best today, I had a few extra chances that I probably shouldn’t have but I’m happy with the way I played and I punished him.”
Allen was left to rue a quantity of missed possibilities and mentioned: “It was a match of what could have been really.
“I was in in a lot of frames and didn’t make the most of my chances and played some really poor safety as well. It’s disappointing for me but credit to him.”
Second seed Ryan Day made certain there wouldn’t be one other upset on the opening day as he compiled breaks of 88, 102 and 53 in beating Chris Wakelin 6-2.
Day will play both Mark Selby or Shaun Murphy in the subsequent round.
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