Crowd favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan crashed out of the Honghe Industrial China Open.
The Rocket was beaten 5-4 by Hong Kong potter Marco Fu in their first-round clash at the Beijing Sports Gymnasium.
Fu also defeat O'Sullivan in the Aberdeen Grand Prix final earlier in the season, but at 4-3 ahead the former world champion must have fancied his chances of progressing to the last-16 stage.
However, Fu dug deep to cause another upset at this week's Far East tournament as O'Sullivan joined fellow former world champions Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis and Graeme Dott in exiting at the first hurdle.
"I don't think Ronnie was totally focused, his play was casual at times," reflected a delighted Fu.
"But there's nothing I can do to control that, I just had to focus on my own game and go for my own shots."
O'Sullivan attempted a difficult blue in the deciding ninth frame, missed, and Fu took his chance.
He added: "At 50-0 down in the last frame I didn't think I'd get another shot, so when I got a chance I felt lucky to be at the table.
"I wasn't nervous. I played well from the start and took all of the chances I had. I felt much more relaxed than I did in my first match."
O'Sullivan won the opening frame with a 74 break before Fu levelled proceedings with a composed 58 run.
O'Sullivan then had his chance in the third frame but broke down on a break of 53 and, thanks largely to a break of 56, it was Fu who edged ahead.
O'Sullivan then moved into a 4-3 lead after breaks of 46, 77 and 99, but Fu stayed close with runs of 88 and a cool 121 break.
The deciding frame saw O'Sullivan establish his 50-point lead, but Fu had a break of 50 himself and made sure of victory by potting the final blue to put his opponent out of reach.
"I tried hard and I'm very disappointed but there has to be a loser," reflected an understandably disappointed O'Sullivan.
"I lost to the better player on the night, so I've got no complaints. I played well but he just played better.
"There have been times in the past when I've won tournaments and I've still been miserable and ended up crying.
"But the most important thing is to enjoy the game. It's history now and good luck to Marco."
In other matches, this season's form player, Mark Selby, proved too good for qualifier Ricky Walden.
Breaks of 69 and back-to-back centuries - 117 and 109 - did the damage for the Leicester professional in a 5-2 win.
Australian ace Neil Robertson, twice a ranking event winner last season, slipped to an agonising 5-2 defeat at the hands of Ulsterman Mark Allen.
Robertson had runs of 112 and 63, but it was Irishman Allen who went through with breaks of 65, 118 and 76.
In the final match of the evening, Englishman Ali Carter wasted little time in dispensing with compatriot Stuart Bingham 5-3.
Bingham, who had to come through tough qualifying matches to secure his Beijing place, performed well with breaks of 40, 38, 91 and 93.
But it was never going to be enough to beat Carter, a trainee pilot, who flew into the next round with breaks of 68, 57, 84 and 40.
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