Struggling Ding Junhui suffered the latest crushing blow in a season to forget as he tumbled out of the 888.com World Grand Prix on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old reached the world number one ranking in December, becoming China's first player to achieve the feat, but his results have been alarmingly poor since.
A 4-1 first-round defeat to Ricky Walden at the £300,000 tournament in Llandudno followed losses at the opening stage at the Masters, German Masters, Welsh Open and Indian Open, and has left Ding with only the upcoming China Open to find some form before he heads into next month's World Championship.
Only last season, Ding equalled Stephen Hendry's record of five ranking titles in a single campaign but now he is enduring one of the toughest periods of his career.
Masters champion Shaun Murphy also bowed out in the first round. Wretched long potting was a key factor in the 4-3 loss to fellow former world champion Peter Ebdon, who secured victory with a break of 136 in the deciding frame and faces Stephen Maguire next.
"It meant an awful lot to me to win today because I'm missing a school play performance from two of my children, Tristan and Ruby, in Dubai," Ebdon said, according to worldsnooker.com.
"To be perfectly honest, I would rather have been there to watch them because they've been rehearsing for the past three months. Maybe I was trying a little bit too hard early on because it meant so much to me. And I know it'll mean a lot to them as well. Maybe thinking of them spurred me on."
Joe Perry staked a claim for the £5,000 top-break prize with a run of 139 in a 4-0 win over Ben Woollaston, while Mark Davis was a 4-1 winner over Marco Fu.
Mark Williams edged out fellow Welshman Ryan Day on the final black, with the two-time former world champion winning 4-3 to earn a shot at Walden in the last 16.
An all-Scottish clash also went all the way to a deciding seventh frame, with Graeme Dott digging deep to overcome John Higgins.
Judd Trump swept ahead of Perry, his next opponent, in the race for the highest-break bonus by making a 140 clearance in a 4-0 win over Welsh veteran Dominic Dale.
Dale's compatriot Michael White, winner of the Snooker Shootout and Indian Open already this month, saw his highly profitable recent winning run reach its end as he fell 4-2 to Robert Milkins.
Milkins will face Ronnie O'Sullivan for a place in the quarter-finals.
