With the likes of Latvian Open winner Neil Robertson staying at home and World Champion Mark Selby and snooker powerhouse Ronnie O'Sullivan delaying the start to their campaigns, the Indian Open was blown wide open on day one as 2015 winner Michael White was stunned by Anthony Hamilton.
Differing emotions for previous World Champions
On a day that followed the latest trend in the sport of unpredictable contests, it was a surprise result that came through first win Thailand's Akani Songsermsawad cruising past Jamie Burnett by four frames to one. Former World Champion Graeme Dott also found himself on the wrong end of the same scoreline, defeated by Oliver Lines seeded 37 places below him.
Just a minute later number 35 seed Dechawat Poomjaeng saw his hopes ended by Cyprus' unseeded Michael Georgiou as a riveting morning session came to a close. The drama for the day did not finish their though, as 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham could only scrape through a final frame decider against amateur Steven Hallworth.
White left red faced
Mark King produced the highest break of the day with a 142 but it was the only moment he could afford a smile as he became another victim of a lower ranked player when veteran Rory McLeod defeated him 4-1. Kyren Wilson and Jamie Jones followed in Bingham's footsteps as they only just scraped through to the second round, before the shock of the day occurred.
Defending champion White never looked comfortable against Hamilton, with the latter settling the nerves with a 125 in the opening frame. Hamilton then took the second, before White earned a consolation in the third, only for the world number 101 to run away with the match in the final two frames.
The most solid performance of the first round came from Martin Gould who secured the only 4-0 victory of the tournament so far, sending out a message to the likes of Shaun Murphy, Ricky Walden, Marco Fu and Barry Hawkins who begin their quests on Wednesday.