Luca Brecel suffers early exit in British Open

The Belgian, who beat Ronnie O’Sullivan on his way to winning a first World Championship at the Crucible earlier this year, needed to reach the third round in Cheltenham to climb to the top of the rankings and end the Rocket's 17-month reign at the top of the tree.

But the 28-year-old Brecel slipped to a 4-3 defeat in the opening round against China’s Ding, who has now beaten him six tiimes.

O’Sullivan announced last week that he would miss the tournament owing to medical reasons.

Elsewhere, Judd Trump came from 2-0 down to secure a 4-2 win over Ukrainian Anton Kazakov.

While Mark Williams beat Peng Yisong 4-1, Ali Carter triumphed over Allan Taylor 4-3 and Robert Milkins was a 4-2 winner over Jiang Jun.