High-flying world No.1 Ronnie O'Sullivan was grounded in the first round of the Snooker World China Open in Beijing on Wednesday.

In spite of a crowd largely in his favor, O'Sullivan was whitewashed 5-0 by Thailand's James Wattana to continue his losing trend. He has not won a ranking tournament match since last October. He made it to the Grand Prix final last October but was beaten in the first rounds of the UK Championship and Welsh Open.

It took Wattana, winner of three previous ranking tournaments, less than two hours to claim the victory.

Wattana won the opening frame 120-14 with an 85-point break, followed by a 91-point break to take the second 91-6.

O'Sullivan, chasing his first China Open title, tried to pick up his game in the third frame, but couldn't pull it together enough to stop Wattana from winning it 65-7 and leading the game 3-0.

The following two frames were even easier for Wattana, who took them 71-16 and 72-25 to give O'Sullivan an unceremonious sending off.

"I didn't expect that," Wattana said, "I knew I had a chance to beat him. But not by 5-0.

"I don't think Ronnie was in the right frame of mind and that gave me an advantage. He seemed a bit lost."

O'Sullivan's failure to make an impact in the events which count towards the composition of the ranking list means he starts out in Beijing third on the provisional standings.

His defeat to Wattana means he has to win next month's World Championship if he wants to keep his No.1 ranking for another season.

"The ranking tournaments are very important. I don't want to give up the No.1 spot but it looks like it has gone now," a frustrated O'Sullivan said after the match.

Also on Wednesday, world No.12 Alan McManus was beaten 5-2 by Stoke's Jamie Cope, while the No.3 Stephen Maguire suffered a 5-3 defeat to Ricky Walden, who reached the quarter-finals of last year's China Open.

Newly crowned world champion Shaun Murphy fell at the first hurdle following a 5-2 loss to Michael Holt.

Murphy, who won the World Championship 11 months ago, came out strong by winning the first frame, but seemed to lose steam soon after. By the fifth frame, he was trailing 1-4.

"You have to adapt to changes in time zone, culture, diet, the lot; but I did not," Murphy commented after the match.

"I played the match feeling totally drained. I was so tired that at one stage all I wanted to do was leave."

Murphy tried for a comeback in the sixth frame with a 124 break, but had to settle to see his opponent seal the victory in the decider with a break of 52.

Earlier in the day, Scotland's Graeme Dott, the 14th seed, eased past local wild card Yu Delu 5-1 to reach the top 16.

Dott will face last year's champion China's Ding Junhui on Thursday evening.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2006)