Mark Allen heaped praise on opponent Barry Hawkins' after being whitewashed at the Masters on Tuesday.
Hawkins stormed into the quarter-finals with a dominant 6-0 victory at Alexandra Palace, combining some superb potting with clinical safety play to progress to the last-eight.
Allen has been one of the in-form players this season, having recently won the Northern Ireland Open and UK Championship.
Read more: Mark Allen opens up on relationship with supportive Belfast fiancée Aideen
He was bidding to secure back-to-back Triple Crown titles, but his hopes were derailed by a blistering performance from Hawkins.
The Antrim cue star said afterwards: "I probably should have won the first frame, and I had a couple of chances in frame four, but other than that I thought he was phenomenal.
"Some of his safety play was ridiculously good. There were a number of times I came to the table and I was scratching my head, I had no shot at all. I wasn't able to play safety returns.
"I said to him at the end, it's probably one of the best safety performances I've ever played against as a pro.
"I was just scratching my head the whole game.
"I missed a few balls as well, but you just have to credit Barry, he just completely froze me out. It was a phenomenal performance."
He added: "I got completely bashed up today. There is absolutely no disgrace in that. You're playing the best in the world here.
"Barry Hawkins is twice a finalist here and three-time ranking event winner. It looks bad on paper, 6-0. But you just have to credit Barry."
Hawkins - who made breaks of 76 and 114 en route to his victory - will now meet Judd Trump or Ryan Day on Friday.
READ NEXT:
Mark Allen opens up on 'embarrassing' fast food binges that led to weight gain
- Mark Allen happy he's getting 'life in order' despite British Open final agony
Stunned Mark Allen 'absolutely battered' at Scottish Open by World No.57
- The shrewd investments paying rich dividends for Rory McIlroy
Sign up to our free sports newsletter to get the latest headlines to your inbox.
