Ding Junhui tumbles out of International Championship to Day after missing easy red

Leading 29-27, the former UK and Masters champion missed a simple enough red with the rest before Welshman Day stepped in with a knock of 40 to secure his place in the last 16 of snooker’s fourth richest tournament that boasts a winner’s prize of £125,000.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Ding, who is regarded as a national sporting icon in his homeland in generating massive interest in snooker and was looking to win back-to-back titles after last week’s success in lifting the Haining Open.

“It was a close match,” said Day.

“I enjoyed playing. Luckily for me, he gave me one more chance than I gave him, and I was able to get over the line. It seems lots of times that Ding and I play each other, it’s very close. We seem to match each others’ game quite well.”

Ding led 4-2 and 5-4, but Day refused to buckle as he ran in a knock of 108 to stay in touch at the Daqing tournament before capitalising on Ding's late error.

Mark Allen lost last year’s final to Ricky Walden, but had no problems in completing a 6-3 win over Kyren Wilson boosted by runs of 59, 126 and 70 to end his opponent’s hopes of emulating his recent success in lifting the Shanghai Masters.

World number four Neil Robertson was a 6-3 winner against Fergal O’Brien boosted by breaks of 65, 64, 58 and 84.

There was also wins for Shaun Murphy, John Higgins and Michael White. Murphy completed a 6-2 win over Jamie Jones, Higgins downed Michael Holt 6-3 with White a 6-3 victor against Lee Walker.

Tian Pengfei (Chn) 6-3 Liang Wenbo (Chn)

Kyren Wilson (Eng) 3-6 Mark Allen (NI)

Mark Williams (Wal) 5-6 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Tha)

Zhou Yuelong (Chn) 6-0 Sanderson Lam (Eng)

Mark Selby (Eng) 6-1 Anthony McGill (Sco)

Lee Walker (Wal) 3-6 Michael White (Wal)

Shaun Murphy (Eng) 6-2 Jamie Jones (Wal)

Michael Holt (Eng) 3-6 John Higgins (Sco)

Barry Hawkins (Eng) 4-6 Jimmy Robertson (Eng)

Jack Lisowski (Eng) 3-6 Marco Fu (HK)

Oliver Lines (Eng) 4-6 David Gilbert (Eng)

Ryan Day (Wal) 6-5 Ding Junhui (Chn)

Graeme Dott (Sco) 6-3 Peter Ebdon (Eng)

Fergal O'Brien (Ire) 3-6 Neil Robertson (Aus)

Joe Perry (Eng) 6-3 Dominic Dale (Wal)

Ben Woollaston (Eng) 6-5 Yu Delu (Chn)

6:30am (GMT)

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Tha) v Zhou Yuelong (Chn)

Graeme Dott (Sco) v Neil Robertson (Aus)

Shaun Murphy (Eng) v John Higgins (Sco)

Joe Perry (Eng) v Ben Woollaston (Eng)

11:30am

Tian Pengfei (Chn) v Mark Allen (NI)

Jimmy Robertson (Eng) v Marco Fu (HK)

David Gilbert (Eng) v Ryan Day (Wal)

Mark Selby (Eng) v Michael White (Wal)