Ronnie O’Sullivan suffered a third-round exit at the Welsh Open as he went down 4-2 to Switzerland’s Alexander Ursenbacher.

‘The Rocket’ had been bidding to land the title for the fifth time in his career but Ursenbacher produced an exceptional performance to secure the victory.

O’Sullivan paid tribute to the 22-year-old Swiss player on Twitter after the loss. He tweeted: “Some days you’re the bug, and some days you’re the windscreen, today I was the bug, well played to @SwissNR1 [Ursenbacher] you played good today, good luck for the rest of the event.”

Ursenbacher had not managed to progress beyond the second round in any event prior to the Welsh Open and failed to qualify for both the German Masters and World Grand Prix prior to the Cardiff event.

The Swiss hopeful was then in action in the fourth round on Thursday evening as he faced a fellow unseeded player in China’s Zhao Xintong, who is currently a career-high 67 – four places above Ursenbacher in the world rankings.

Zhao, who reached the China Championship semi-finals earlier in the season, ended Ursenbacher’s Welsh Open bid with a 4-2 success at the Motorpoint Arena and will now face Stuart Bingham in the quarter-finals.

Zhao is 2.63 to win the last-eight tie and 12.00 to win the Welsh Open outright. Bingham is 1.44 to come out on top on Friday.