Three-time winner Neil Robertson crashed out of the UK Championship in the first round for the second year running after a 6-2 defeat to practice partner Joe Perry.

Perry raced into a 4-0 lead at York Barbican with the aid of breaks of 102, 85 and 68 as an out-of-sorts Robertson failed to score more than 23 points in any of the first four frames.

The world No 2 unsurprisingly spent time on the practice table at the mid-session interval and it paid dividends as he took the fifth frame with a break of 88, but Perry’s 81 in the next took him to the verge of victory.

Australian Robertson, who won the UK title in 2013, 2015 and 2020, took the seventh frame to keep the match alive but Perry deservedly sealed his place in the last 16 with a break of 64.

“I feel good,” Perry said. “I played like that last week in the qualifiers but you never know if you’re going to produce that out there in the arena.

“After a bit of a shaky start I really found my game and played really nicely and enjoyed it,” he added.

“I could see he wasn’t 100 per cent today – he sounded like he had a stinking cold – but you can’t afford to let your guard down because he’s so good he can rattle a few frames off no matter how’s he feeling."

Belgium’s Luca Brecel also advanced with a hard-fought 6-4 win over Lyu Haotian.

Jimmy White – the 60-year-old who came through the qualifiers to reach York - suffered a 6-2 defeat to Ryan Day.

Day will play Sam Craigie in the second round after the 28-year-old from Newcastle knocked out defending champion Zhao Xintong 6-2.

John Higgins suffered a surprise 6-4 defeat to Tom Ford.

Tickets for this week’s UK Championship are still available for certain sessions mid-week – for details see wst.tv/tickets

UK Championship: Robertson and Higgins suffer early exits in York