Ronnie O'Sullivan's hopes of £1m home nations bonus ended by Belfast loss

Victories in the NI, Scottish and Welsh Opens would have earned O'Sullivan a £1m bonus following his English Open triumph last month

Ronnie O'Sullivan's hopes of winning snooker's first £1m jackpot were dashed as he exited at the last-32 stage of the Northern Ireland Open in Belfast.

Gateshead's Elliot Slessor, world number 82, was a shock 4-1 winner over the five-time world champion.

O'Sullivan, 41, won the English Open last month and triumphs in the Northern Ireland, Scottish and Welsh Opens would have earned him the £1m bonus.

"I just went in not expecting anything," Slessor, 23, told Eurosport.

Slessor added he had booked a flight home for Thursday after checking out of his Belfast hotel.

"We've got a flight tonight at half eight, which obviously I can't make now so I need to try to find a hotel," he said.

"To play Ronnie was just a dream anyway, you know the crowd's going to be full. All I wanted to do was try my best and have a good attitude and see how far it got us."

O'Sullivan's 'numpties' claim

O'Sullivan recently claimed the tour's lower reaches were populated by "numpties" but Slessor said "everybody can play on their day".

"There's not as many numpties as he probably thinks there is," added Slessor, who returned to the table during the evening session to book his place in the quarter-finals.

The Gateshead man extended his stay in Belfast with a 4-1 victory over Sam Craigie in the fourth round.

O'Sullivan came into the Belfast event on the back of a 10-3 victory over Judd Trump in the Shanghai Masters final.

Trump and former world champion Shaun Murphy has been among several other big names to exit early in Belfast.

Defending champion Mark King also bowed out on Thursday after losing 4-1 against China's Yan Bingtao.

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