Chinese snooker player Tian Pengfei. (Photo : Getty Images)
Top Hong Kong snooker player Marco Fu and Chinese star Tian Pengfei both lost to their third round opponents in the 2016 World Snooker China Open held at the Beijing University Students' Gymnasium in Beijing on Thursday.
With Fu and Tian eliminated in the last 16 round of the competitions, there will be no more players of Chinese descent who will compete in the quarterfinals of the said annual snooker ranking tournament.
The 38-year-old Fu, who last won a ranking tournament in 2013 in the Australian Goldfields Open, was whitewashed by former world no. 1 Judd Trump of England, 5-1, as the "Juddernaut" pulled off two century breaks of 109 and 110 to dominate the contest, according to RTE Sport.
Fu, currently ranked 15th in the world and considered as Hong Kong's best snooker player at the moment, was expected to make it a tight fight, but the current world no. 6 did not give him the opportunity to get close and pull off an upset by starting strongly right at the kick off.
Both players advanced in the last 16 via crushing wins against their second round opponents with Fu blanking England's Robert Milkins, 5-0, while Trump demolishing countryman Jimmy Robertson, 5-1.
Trump is set to face fellow Englishman Mark King in the quarters.
Meanwhile, the 28-year-old Tian, currently ranked 58th in the world, went down to world no. 11 Ricky "The Walnut" Walden of England in a gut-wrenching 5-4 match during the last 16, via Cri English.
Tian, China's last man standing in the third round of the tournament the country is hosting, has never won any ranking tournament so far in his career and his dream was once again doused by the former world no. 6 as the remaining eight competitors in the China Open are now all non-Chinese.
In other results, world no. 2 and current world champion Stuart Bingham of England turned back the challenge of compatriot Rod Lawler in the third round, 5-2, to advance in the quarters against Walden.
Four-time world champion John Higgins of Scotland defeated Englishman David Gilbert, 5-3, to face Thailand's surprise qualifier Noppon Saengkham, who beat former China Open winner Graeme Dott, 5-1.
