Mark Selby became the seventh world snooker champion to lose in the first round of the tournament a year on from savouring a Crucible triumph.
The three-time winner of snooker’s toughest event was sent packing by veteran Joe Perry.
Here, Press Association Sport looks at the defending champions who have suffered the same fate.
1982 – Steve Davis lost 10-1 to Tony Knowles
Davis was not only beaten, he was beaten up. Knowles became an overnight sensation and Davis saw his hopes of defending his first world title reduced to rubble. Thirty years later Davis said: “The first round is a nightmare for everybody some days. You tend to think the younger player coming in has less to worry about, has less to protect and therefore less of an albatross around his neck. The defending world champion has a couple of them slung around him, weighing him down.”
1986 – Dennis Taylor lost 10-6 to Mike Hallett
Taylor had been a surprise champion, with his famous win against Davis, but any hopes of a swift repeat were crushed immediately by Grimsby man Hallett, who went on to lose against Neal Foulds in the quarter-finals.
2000 – Stephen Hendry lost 10-7 to Stuart Bingham
The beginning of the end of an era. Hendry dominated the 1990s and landed seven titles in the decade, but this was a brutal way to enter a new century, and the great Scot was never Crucible champion again. Bingham was barely known outside snooker circles before this David and Goliath contest, but unbeknownst to him he would one day rule the world.
2007 – Graeme Dott lost 10-7 to Ian McCulloch
Few had picked Dott as a likely winner a year before, and this always looked a tricky opener. McCulloch had reached the semi-finals two years earlier before falling down the rankings, and the experienced Preston potter brought his best game to Sheffield. Dott said: “I’ve never felt like that. I felt as though I was letting him beat me.”
2011 – Neil Robertson lost 10-8 to Judd Trump
This was the worst possible draw, given Trump had won his first major title at the China Open just weeks earlier. The 21-year-old left-hander from Bristol played thrilling snooker to knock out Robertson and marched all the way to the final, introducing the sport to the concept of “naughty snooker” and almost beating John Higgins in the title match.
2016 – Stuart Bingham lost 10-9 to Ali Carter
Bingham spent many years as a journeyman professional but in 2015 he capped the best season of his life with a shock Crucible crown. A year later, the man who surprised Hendry at the start of the century found himself on the wrong end of a first-day upset in Sheffield. Two-time runner-up Carter was always bound to be a tricky opponent, and the outcome came as a surprise to very few.
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