SNOOKER: MARCO FU suffered a shock first-round defeat as the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals got under way in Dublin yesterday.

The Hong Kong cueman, who was runner-up to Ding Junhui at the Wembley Masters in January, was beaten 4-1 by England’s Michael Holt.

Holt was coming off the disappointment of losing in the final round of World Championship qualifying on Saturday, the lowest point of a poor season.

Holt will face Barry Pinches tomorrow in the second round.

There was also a welcome victory for Mark Davis, who reached the Crucible in 2010 but also failed to qualify for this year’s World Championship at the weekend.Davis saw off Joe Jogia 4-0 to set up a meeting with Stephen Lee.

And Anthony Hamilton won through to the last 16 and will play world number two Mark Williams next. He defeated Tom Ford 4-2, but was scathing about his own performance, three days after being another to lose a World Championship qualifier. “Apart from two frames the rest of it was completely rubbish and I’m sure Tom would say the same thing.”