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Mark Williams was beaten 10-9 by 2023 semi-finalist Si Jiahui at the Crucible. Williams' exit means six seeds have now fallen in the first round so far. Mark Williams' quest for a fourth World Snooker Championship title ended in the first round as he lost a last-frame thriller to 2023 semi-finalist Si Jiahui.
Sixth seed Williams - world champion in 2000, 2003 and 2018 - led 5-4 after Monday's opening session but then found himself 8-5 down as Jiahui reeled off four frames in a row on Tuesday afternoon.
The 49-year-old then recovered from 9-7 down to force a decider but his Chinese opponent, 21, knocked in a nerveless break of 77 in the 19th frame to secure a second-round meeting with fellow qualifier Jak Jones.
Williams' exit takes the number of seeds eliminated in the first round to six, with defending champion Luca Brecel, four-time winner Mark Selby, Ali Carter, Gary Wilson and Zhang Anda also dispatched.
Meanwhile O'Sullivan plays first match on Wednesday afternoon.
Williams was hoping to become the oldest champion in the tournament's history, a record held by Ronnie O'Sullivan, who was 46 years and 148 days when he won the most recent of his seven Crucible trophies in 2022.
O'Sullivan begins his bid for an outright record eighth world title against Jackson Page at 2.30pm on Wednesday, with that match then concluding from 1pm the following day.
Jiahui led Luca Brecel 14-5 in last year's semi-final, only to lose the match 17-15 as Brecel won 12 of the next 13 frames in a Crucible-record comeback.
Jiahui's clash with Williams was viewed as one of the ties of the first round, with Williams winning the previous tournament on the calendar, the Tour Championship in Manchester.
Williams, 49, defeated Judd Trump, Mark Allen and O'Sullivan - the top three players in the world rankings - in successive matches to claim his second ranking title of the season, after the British Open in Cheltenham in October.
Lewis Musonye
