Mark Allen admitted he was well below par as he suffered a shock early exit against Ricky Walden in the first round of the China Open.
The Northern Irishman was convincingly beaten 5-2 by English prospect Walden in Beijing and afterwards he admitted his opponent deserved to progress.
"That didn't go as planned," Allen said on twitter after going out early in the Far East. "Poor performance and some costly errors at wrong time."
He also praised Walden's impressive display and wished him luck for the rest of the competition.
"All credit to Ricky. He played solid. Good luck to him," he added.
The defeat, which comes on the back of Allen winning the World Open title, is the second time in a row that he has lost in the first round in China, following his early exit to Marcus Campbell 12 months ago. World champion John Higgins, meanwhile, made it through to the last-16 without any issues with a 5-1 win over Rory McLeod and he will now face Peter Ebdon or Matthew Stevens in the next round. Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham are also safely through with Williams set to face Ronnie O'Sullivan in the next round, providing the three-time world champion beats Scotsman Campbell later on Wednesday.
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