London, Jan 15 (IANS): China's Ding Junhui suffered his fourth successive first-round defeat at the Snooker Masters as he was upset by 14th seed Joe Perry 6-3.
Perry made his debut in the tournament in 2003 and lost his opening match in his first six appearances. But he finally got past that hurdle Wednesday with a fine display against World No.2 Ding, reports Xinhua.
Ding, who won a record-equalling five ranking tournaments last season, was in poor form and made too many unforced errors in the day's fight.
Perry took the opening frame with a break of 79 before Ding, the 2011 Masters champion, levelled with a run of 80. Perry went all the way ahead then, leading 2-1, 4-2 and 4-3 before finishing off the match by 6-3.
"Maybe the only reason is that Alexandra Palace doesn't like me. It wants an English player to win," Ding said jokingly.