WORLD champion Stuart Bingham suffered a shock 6-2 defeat by Yu Delu in the first round of the International Championship in Daqing, China, on Monday.

    The 28-year-old Yu, playing in his home country, is ranked 55 in the world and has only reached one quarterfinal of a ranking event in his career.

    Bingham trailed 3-2 at one stage, clinching frames with breaks of 64 and 56, but Yu then won three in a row.

    With defending champion Ricky Walden losing in the first round of the tournament to Tian Pengfei on Sunday, the top two seeds at the event have lost in successive days.

    “It was just a very poor performance from me,” said Bingham, whose best performance so far this season was reaching the last four of the Shanghai Masters.

    “I missed easy balls in the first few frames, I was gifting him chances. I should have wrapped the last two frames up earlier. Yu practices near me in Essex so I know how good he is, but I played badly.”

    Former world champions Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy and John Higgins all won.

    China’s Ding Junhui progressed to the second round after a 6-4 success against Sam Craigie in the wildcard round while four-time world champion John Higgins completed 6-2 success against Zhao Xintong.(SD-Agencies)