Aaron Hill suffered an agonising defeat to home favourite Zhang Anda in the last 16 of the Wuhan Open in China this morning.
Hill, looking to build on his superb victory over Kyren Wilson on Monday, lost a deciding frame in the best of nine clash.
The Corkman began the match with a magnificent 137 break before Zhang took control, moving into a 3-1 lead at the interval.
Hill came roaring back with his own three-frame run, including a 63 break, to move one away from victory.
But the Chinese player claimed the final two frames to progress to the quarter-finals.
Mark Allen did make it however, beating Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-1 in the afternoon session.
Gary Wilson edged out world number one Judd Trump in another final frame decider.
Trump, the 2023 Wuhan champion, made three 50-plus breaks and was never behind until the last frame of a high-quality contest.
Wilson exchanged breaks with Trump as the score reached 4-4, and then dominated the decider to boost his ambitions of returning to the world's top 16.
John Higgins set up a last-eight date with Wilson by breezing past Tom Ford 5-1.
English teenager Stan Moody hailed the "best win of my career" after demolishing Barry Hawkins 5-0 to reach his maiden quarter-final.
The 18-year-old needed just 57 minutes to blitz his way to victory, accumulating 431 points without reply against former Crucible finalist Hawkins.
Moody will now meet Xiao Guodong after the 2024 champion delighted his home crowd with a 5-2 victory over England’s Matthew Selt.
Mark Williams secured a hard fought 5-3 win over Mark Selby to reach the 118th ranking event quarter-final of his career.
Selby drew level after losing the first three frames, but Williams crafted breaks of 63 and 68 to get over the line.
The Welshman’s next opponent will be Zhang.
Si Jiahui became the third Chinese player to book his place in the last eight with a 5-2 victory over Scotland’s Stephen Maguire.
