Snooker: Day Breaks Keep O'sullivan's Progress in Check

Ronnie O'Sullivan, twice world champion here and regarded as favourite for the title by those who believe that his best is better than anyone else's, was held to 4-4 in the opening session of his best-of-25-frames second-round match by Ryan Day, a 26-year-old Welshman who stands 33rd in the world rankings.

O'Sullivan was away fast enough to a 2-0 lead but Day showed his quality by winning the next three frames. With a total clearance of 140, a new front runner for the £10,000 highest-break prize, O'Sullivan equalised but Day, through a run of 68, again put his nose in front before O'Sullivan's 40 and 65 gave him the last frame of the day.

Peter Ebdon, the 2002 champion, accumulated a 6-2 lead over David Gray with which to resume this morning. Ebdon started impressively with a break of 107 and was soon 2-0 up but there were to be three protracted frames of 45, 39 and 39 minutes respectively in a session that took three hours 25 minutes to complete.

Gray won the first of these marathons but was 4-1 down and on the verge of 5-1 behind before recording his only other success. In the entire afternoon, though, Gray's highest break when a frame was still in a live situation was a mere 19. Inexorably, Ebdon added the remaining two frames of the afternoon as he progressed towards a quarter-final with the defending champion Shaun Murphy.

The new cloths fitted to both tables did improve playing conditions although the pockets remain tight, putting a premium on positional play and making pots at narrow angles down cushions more hazardous.

Murphy, Mark Williams, Hong Kong's Marco Fu and Australia's Neil Robertson are already through to the last eight. Murphy has disposed of two veterans, James Wattana and Steve Davis; Williams, winner of last month's China Open, closed out Mark Selby 13-8 on Saturday evening and will expect to play O'Sullivan with a semi-final place at stake.

Fu, a quarter-finalist three years ago whose lack of subsequent success prompted him to put himself under the wing of the former world champion Terry Griffiths, has in many ways been the surprise of the championship. His defeats of Alan McManus (10-3) and McGuire (13-4) have revealed formidable consistency, although he will need to maintain it against the winner of the match between Ken Doherty and Matthew Stevens.

Doherty, the 1997 champion, and Stevens, who has lost two finals in the last five years, went into their middle session yesterday evening level 4-4. Robertson, the first Australian quarter-finalist here since Eddie Charlton in 1983, will face a last-eight contest against Graeme Dott or Nigel Bond. Dott held a 5-3 lead going into their middle session yesterday .