China's Liu Song out of Welsh Open Snooker
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Chinese qualifier Liu Song was knocked out of the Welsh Oepn Snooker in the first round by Australian cueman Neil Robertson on Monday.
In the evening session, world number eight Marco Fu from Hong Kong of China also suffered a first round exit, making Ding Junhui the only Chinese player in the ranking tournament.
The UK Championships title holder Ding is going to play against English Jamie Cope on Wednesday.
Liu made great efforts to hold world number nine Robertson at 2-2, but faded quickly after the interval to lose the match 5-2.
Liu, 26, advanced into a ranking tournament for the first time in two seasons by winning three matches in a row in the qualifying rounds. He admitted that he hadn't played a ranking tournament for a long time so he was not used to the atmosphere.
"I was nervous at first but I played some good shots," said Liu, who turned pro 2003 after grabbing the silver medal at the U21 World Championships earlier that year. "I made some mistakes while trailing at 3-2 so as to lose the whole game."
Meeting Robertson for the first time in seven years after the Australian beat him in the final of U21 World Championships, Liu believed that he was left behind quite a lot by his counterpart.
"Neil continues to make great achievements in competitions and holds his position among the top 16. I'm left behind and there is a big gap between us," said Liu who places 59th in the world rankings.
Liu's next event is China Open qualifying, which runs from February 2nd to 5th.
Fu is currently enjoying his highest ever world ranking at eighth, but disappointed for losing to English Andrew Higginson 5-2.
As the runnerup of this event in 2008, Higginson took the first four frames in a row, then wrapped up in the seventh frame after Fu pulled two frames back.
"He played so well that I could hardly find any chance during the first four frames," Fu commented on his rival.
The 32-year-old Fu only won one match in ranking events this season. He revealed that the lackluster results were due to his adjustment of techniques.
"I'm satisfied with my techniques right now, so I just hope that I could get more fortune in the following competitions," said Fu.
In the other two first round matches on Monday, former world champion Peter Ebdon was swept 5-0 by Barry Hawkins. Defending champion Allister Carter defeated Mark Davis 5-1.
