diff --git a/drivers/i2c/i2c-core.c b/drivers/i2c/i2c-core.c
index 361978a8485a8fd91f9642fee5434275bfc6de4b..26488aa893d5e5dc62ac2d01c332dd2d4ca9d2a1 100644
--- a/drivers/i2c/i2c-core.c
+++ b/drivers/i2c/i2c-core.c
@@ -2140,11 +2140,17 @@ s32 i2c_smbus_xfer(struct i2c_adapter *adapter, u16 addr, unsigned short flags,
 				break;
 		}
 		i2c_unlock_adapter(adapter);
-	} else
-		res = i2c_smbus_xfer_emulated(adapter, addr, flags, read_write,
-					      command, protocol, data);
 
-	return res;
+		if (res != -EOPNOTSUPP || !adapter->algo->master_xfer)
+			return res;
+		/*
+		 * Fall back to i2c_smbus_xfer_emulated if the adapter doesn't
+		 * implement native support for the SMBus operation.
+		 */
+	}
+
+	return i2c_smbus_xfer_emulated(adapter, addr, flags, read_write,
+				       command, protocol, data);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(i2c_smbus_xfer);