Snooker: Defending champion John Higgins has crashed out of the 888.com World Championship in Sheffield.
Higgins, aiming to become only the third player to successfully defend the title, lost 13-9 to Welshman Ryan Day in the second round at the Crucible.
The Scot led 4-0 and 6-3 during Friday's play but resumed this morning at 8-8 and quickly lost the first three frames, even though Day's highest break was just 49.
A break of 83 saw Higgins back to his fluent best and gave him renewed hope at the mid-session interval, but the 32-year-old still needed to win four of a possible five remaining frames to progress.
That never looked likely as a completely out of sorts Higgins continued to miss easy balls, and Day went 12-9 ahead with a break of 48.
Another break of 48 was ended by a missed red along the cushion but Higgins amazingly missed the easy opener he was left and Day sealed a shock victory and a quarter-final clash with either Stephen Hendry or Ding Junhui.
Seven-time champion Hendry takes an 11-5 lead into today's final session.
Another former champion, 2005 winner Shaun Murphy, was also in real trouble against Essex's Ali Carter, Carter extending his 6-2 overnight lead to 9-3 at the mid-session interval.