 Murphy had a bye into the second round |
Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson both suffered second-round defeats at the UK Championship in York. England's Murphy, the 2005 world champion, never got going as he lost 9-3 to rejuvenated Scot Alan McManus.
Aussie star Robertson, winner of the Grand Prix in Aberdeen, went down 9-5 against Finland's Robin Hull.
Ronnie O'Sullivan scraped into the third round, beating Ricky Walden 9-8. After leading 7-4, the former world number one found himself 8-7 down.
Six-time world champion Steve Davis, last year's beaten finalist, is in good form again - he beat Scotland's Jamie Burnett 9-5 and next faces McManus,
Another former Crucible winner, Mark Williams of Wales, progressed with a 9-7 victory over Northern Ireland's Gerard Greene.
 | The table wasn't the worst I've played on but it was somewhere near |
Scotland's John Higgins went through at the expense of Mark King, who lost 9-4 but emulated the 146 total clearance achieved by David Gray on Wednesday.
Higgins' next opponent will be Stephen Lee, who secured a 9-6 win over fellow Englishman Rod Lawler.
Another Scot, Stephen Maguire, joined Higgins in the third round with a 9-8 win over Joe Swail of Northern Ireland.
Murphy was left to rue a poor opening session, which left him trailing 6-2.
"I felt it was a mixture of Alan's great play - tactically he's one of the best - and me not having the best fortune in the world," he said.
Robertson partly blamed his loss on the five-table 'cubicle' format in use for the early rounds at the Barbican Centre.
"It's the first time I've played in the cubicles for a while," said the Melbourne potter.
"The crowds and the TV cameras bring out the best in me but this brought me back down to earth, and Robin played really well."
O'Sullivan acknowledged an unpredictable bounce off a cushion had hindered Walden when he was on a potentially match-winning break of 52.
"The table wasn't the worst I've played on but it was somewhere near," said the 31-year-old from Essex.
"If it hadn't been for a cushion Ricky would have won 9-7, so a bad table has got me through to the next round in a way."
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