Eighth seed Kyren Wilson suffered a surprise early exit from the International Championship after losing 6-2 to China’s Yuan Sijun in round one.

Wilson has been in impressive form this season having landed the Paul Hunter Classic in August before winning the Six-red World Championship the following month.

The Englishman also reached the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters and there were high hopes for his chances of triumphing in the third ranking event of the season in China.

However, the 26-year-old, who is 17.00 to win the 2019 World Championship, produced one of his worst performances of the campaign as he failed to make a single break over 50.

Sijun, spurred on by the home crowd, made breaks of 62 and 70 to clinch a comfortable 6-2 win and set up a second-round clash against compatriot Xiao Guodong.

Elsewhere, another big name fell at the first hurdle with 14th seed and 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham losing 6-3 to Scotland’s Eden Sharav.

The 42-year-old Englishman, who is 34.00 to land a second world title next year, made a brilliant 130 break in the fourth frame but that wasn’t enough to stop his Scottish opponent from wrapping up a routine victory.

English duo Martin Gould and Jack Lisowski are both safely through to the second round after recording thumping 6-1 wins over Li Hang and Chris Wakelin.

Gould made four 50-plus breaks whilst Lisowski hit six breaks over 50, with the pick of the bunch a 128 in frame two.