Stephen Lee produced a magnificent performance to beat an equally-inspired Mark Williams in the first round of the China Open in Beijing.

Williams made four century breaks during the match, but found himself on the end of an unlikely 5-4 defeat as Lee refused to be overawed by the Welshman's astonishing break building.

Williams opened up with a 100 and a 133 before Lee scrapped through the next three frames to go into a narrow lead.

Yet when the twice world champion replied with a 104 and a 137 to lead 4-3, it seemed that he must surely go on to win the match.

Lee had other ideas, however, digging in to force a decider.

And there was yet more drama to come: Williams seemed to be on the verge of closing out the match as he led 70-11 in the final frame, but Lee came to the table and made a 61 clearance to win one of the most astonishing matches of the season so far.

In-form Stephen Maguire fell to a surprise first-round defeat at the hands of Mark Davis.

The two players split the first six frames of a tough-fought match, but Davis produced breaks of 73 and 137 to knock out the world number seven.

Shaun Murphy, fresh from his victory at the PTC finals, had no hiccups, beating Joe Perry 5-3.

Perry built a 3-1 lead but Murphy roared back to win four frames in a row, knocking in breaks of 71, 56 and 89 along the way.

Ding Junhui also had to dig deep to find a way through in his home tournament - at one point trailing 4-1 to Norwegian Kurt Maflin.

But back-to-back centuries of 133 and 117 got the Chinese back into the contest - his experience then got him over the line with three gritty half-centuries to close out the final two frames.

Mark Allen was not able to match Ding and Murphy's comebacks, though, and Marcus Campbell won a scrappy final frame to cling on to for a 5-4 win, having been 4-2 ahead.

And former World Champion Graeme Dott bowed out to local hope Li Hang on another final-frame decider. The Chinese hit two centuries en route to a 5-4 victory.

In the two remaining wildcard matches, Gerard Greene beat Yu De Lu 5-2, while Robert Milkins eased past Rouzi Maimaiti 5-1.

Eurosport