Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan crashed out of the UK Championship on Wednesday.

The three-time world champion lost 9-5 to Joe Perry in Telford, despite starting the day with a 5-3 advantage.

After losing three frames in a row, the 33-year-old seemed to have lost all interest, and conceded the next frame at only 23-0 down to go 7-5 behind.

The incident brought back memories of two years ago, when O'Sullivan conceded another best-of-17-frame UK Championship match.

In the quarter-final of his York clash against Stephen Hendry, he shook hands with the Scot while trailing 4-1 - and left the building immediately.

Perry took full advantage of whatever was affecting O'Sullivan - and quickly wrapped up victory by taking the final two frames to give himself a clean sweep of all six.

(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2008)