Northern Ireland Open: Home favourite Mark Allen crashes out

Mark Allen lost the last two frames of his evening session match against Tian Pengfei.

Mark Allen is out of the Northern Ireland Open after losing a final frame decider to China's Tian Pengfei.

The home favourite led three times but Pengfei's century break of 109 earned him a 4-3 win in Belfast on Wednesday night and a place in the third round.

Jimmy White beat Wales' Jak Jones 4-0 to also book his place in the last 32.

Earlier, Ronnie O'Sullivan whitewashed Duane Jones 4-0 and will play Elliot Slessor in the next round at the Waterfront Hall.

The five-time world champion, 41, is in fine form, having won the English Open and Shanghai Masters and been runner-up in the Champion of Champions.

O'Sullivan was much too strong for the world number 113 and finished off the match with an 81 break.

The Englishman came into the event on the back of a 10-3 victory over Judd Trump in the Shanghai Masters final.

Ronnie O'Sullivan will play another Englishman Elliot Slessor in the last 32 on Thursday

O'Sullivan chasing £1m 'Home Nations' bonus

O'Sullivan also won the English Open and remains on target for the £1m bonus prize on offer for any player who collects all four of the Home Nations tournaments, with the Scottish and Welsh Opens still to come.

Allen said he had "no complaints" after his defeat as the Chinese player took the final frame with his 109 break after potting a brilliant red following a decent looking safety shot from the Northern Irishman.

"I missed a couple of chances in the earlier frames but I didn't play that badly. I just missed one or two shots," said Allen.

"A few times the balls didn't run for me and he made decent breaks when he was in.

"He made three 50s and a century. In a best of seven, that's pretty good."

Doherty progresses to last 32

Dubliner Ken Doherty, another former world champion, went through 4-1 at the expense of another Chinese player Niu Zhuang.

Neil Robertson, Mark Williams, Joe Perry and defending champion Mark King also progressed to round three, but Ali Carter was beaten 4-1 by Xiao Guodong.

Australian Robertson saw off Billy Castles 4-0 - the same scoreline by which Williams defeated Tom Ford and Perry beat Matthew Selt - while King saw off Ashley Hugill 4-1.

World number two Trump and sixth-ranked Shaun Murphy both suffered surprise defeats in the first round of the tournament.

The event has a total prize fund of £366,000, with the winner picking up £70,000 plus the Alex Higgins Trophy.