Perry punished by Ding

Ding Junhui reduced Joe Perry to his first ever defeat in the PartyPoker.com Premier League with a 4-2 win at the Newport Centre in Wales.

After winning three matches in a row in his first appearance in the Premier League, Perry was brought back down to earth by a ruthless Ding.

The Chinese potter had only picked up one point from his opening three matches, however he looked in fine touch - amassing a break of 70 in the opener before missing a thin cut on a frame-winning red.

Perry failed to capitalise when missing a straightforward brown - Ding seized his opportunity and moved 1-0 ahead.

Ding doubled his advantage soon after when he clinched the second frame 97-4, thanks mainly to a break of 41.

Things went from bad to worse for Perry in the third as Ding won the frame to nil - Perry had now gone more than 30 minutes without potting a ball.

Comfortable

However, the Fen potter did bounce back with an untroubled break of 85, only for Ding to respond clinically in the fifth frame to seal the victory and open up an unassailable 4-1 lead.

And, despite clinching the sixth and final frame, Perry will be disappointed he failed to snatch the £1,000 bonus for a century break as he failed to down the red using the rest after a break of 90.

In the other game of the evening, Steve Davis' Premier League woes continued as he crashed to a 5-1 defeat at the hands of Stephen Hendry.

The comfortable win for the Scot saw him leapfrog John Higgins into fourth place, while Davis remains rooted to the bottom of the table with four defeats out of four.

Davis had plenty of chances throughout the course of the match, however missed pots at crucial stages cost the six-time World Champion dear.

Hendry, himself was guilty of fluffing a host of opportunities whilst amongst the balls, however he held his nerve when it mattered to clinch the decisive fifth frame before wrapping up the match.