World number four Paul Hunter crashed out of the Malta Cup today at the hands of journeyman Stuart Pettman.
With under a fortnight to go before Hunter attempts to win the Masters for the fourth time in five years, there is no sign that he is about to re-discover his lost confidence.
After losing 5-3 to Preston-based Pettman in Portomaso, Hunter admitted: "I'm just not playing well enough.
"I'm fine in practice, but that doesn't count for anything. I'm struggling, and a lack of wins plays on your mind after a while.
"Everybody goes through a bad spell like this at some point in their careers, but it's still a horrible feeling. You've just to take it on the chin and get on with it. I just need to put some wins together."
World number 38 Pettman, who in 13 years on the pro-circuit had previously been to the last 32 of just 10 ranking events and lost on each occasion, finally broke through after being held to 2-2 at the mid-session interval.
In moving from 2-2 to 4-2, Pettman scored 165 points without reply.
Hunter stopped the rot with a 77 break in the seventh, but Pettman held firm to take the eighth 73-0 and will now face Steve Davis or Jamie Burnett for a place in the quarter-finals.
"Paul didn't play well - but when you get chances against the top boys you've still got to take them," said Pettman.
"The last-32 round has been a real nemesis for me over the years. I've always lost to the big-name players, so to finally get through is great. I've had such a bad season I'm really surprised with the result."
Graeme Dott, a player much better acquainted with the latter stages of a major event than Pettman, set up a repeat of last year's Embassy World Championship final with a 5-1 victory over Adrian Gunnell.
Helped by breaks of 56 and 61, Dott eased through and will now tackle Ronnie O'Sullivan who prevailed 18-8 when they met at the Crucible 10 months ago.
