Ding Junhui's hopes of retaining his Wuzou International Group Jiangsu Classic title suffered an early blow as he lost 2-1 to Li Hang in his opening match in Wuxi, though he recovered by beating Stephen Hendry.
Wild card Li (pictured), who has shown his promise with some fine results in his debut professional season, took a scrappy opening frame on the pink before Ding levelled with a break of 117. Former UK champion Ding had the first clear scoring chance in the decider but could only make 33, leaving Li to take it with an excellent 65.
Home favourite Ding, who beat Mark Selby in last year's final, hit back with a 2-1 defeat of Hendry. He won the first and third frames on the colours, Hendry taking the second with a run of 60.
Scotland's Hendry also lost 2-0 to Mark Allen and now looks unlikely to finish in the top two in the group and qualify for Saturday's semi-finals.
Ryan Day made an impressive start against Peter Ebdon with a 132, then came from 51-0 down in the second frame, making a break of 60 before winning it on the pink.
Crucible runner-up Shaun Murphy has made a fine start in group two. He enjoyed a 2-0 victory over Jin Long, cleraring the colours to win the first frame on the black then adding the second with a 114. Murphy went on to beat Marco Fu 2-0 without conceding a single point.
Fu had previously beaten Joe Perry 2-0, while Mark Selby beat Ali Carter 2-0 with a best effort of 92.
