Ronnie O’Sullivan has been knocked of the China Open after a surprising defeat in the second round – but he made sure he would not go away empty-handed in quite sensational style.

Ronnie O’Sullivan. Picture by Monique Limbos

That’s because the five-times World Championship winner made a sublime 147 maximum break in the middle of his 6-2 loss to fellow Englishman Elliot Slessor.

It means Ronnie O’Sullivan is likely to win a bonus £42,000 at the end of the tournament should no other player make a maximum in the tournament.

However, amazingly, this was Slessor’s second successive victory over O’Sullivan after beating him in the early rounds of the Northern Ireland Open earlier this season.

Slessor led O’Sullivan 4-0 before the number one player of the season hit a record 14th career maximum in professional competition to make it 4-1.

But the 23-year-old held his nerve to win two of the next three frames to record his biggest victory yet. Slessor will next face Tom Ford for a place in the last 16.

And that was not the only shock on another dramatic day in Beijing.

World number five and former world champion Shaun Murphy was thrashed 6-0 by Chris Wakelin and fellow top 16 star Anthony McGill lost to recent World Snooker Federation winner Luo Honghao who will turn professional from next season.

Shaun Murphy. Picture by Monique Limbos

Meanwhile, Liang Wenbo will have to play three matches to qualify for the World Championship which starts later this month after the China number two star fell to a 6-5 loss to Duane Jones.

World number one Mark Selby recorded a hard-fought 6-4 win over Scott Donaldson and 2010 world champion Neil Robertson beat Robbie Williams 6-3.