DEFENDING champion Ronnie O'Sullivan is biting mad as he starts his second match in this year's PowerHouse UK Snooker Championship in York tonight.

Despite beating rank outsider Adrian Gunnell 9-2 in his first match at the Barbican Centre, O'Sullivan was so frustrated with his performance that after the match he chewed the tip off his cue.

His play was so poor in the early frames on Saturday that the ambidextrous O'Sullivan switched to playing left-handed to try to improve his concentration. He later changed back to right-handed, but breaks of 128 and 109 in the sixth and seventh frames were the only bright spots in a poor display.

So he will have a new tip on his cue tonight which he hopes will put the bite back into his game as he plays the world No 27 Marco Fu from Hong Kong, starting at 7.30pm. They play eight frames tonight and finish the match tomorrow afternoon for a place in the quarter-finals.

The other clash tonight is between a resurgent Steve Davis and world No 4 John Higgins, who recovered from a shocking opening session on Saturday when he trailed Allister Carter 4-1. The former world and UK champion pulled back to 5-3 at the end of the first session and then played superbly on Saturday night, winning six frames in a row to win 9-5.

Yorkshire snooker star Paul Hunter faced an uphill battle this afternoon to stay in the championship. The new British Open champion's form slumped in the opening session of his third round clash with former world champion Ken Doherty.

Hunter, whose confidence was sky-high after his 9-1 drubbing of David Gray in the second round last Wednesday, did a lot wrong yesterday and very little right in a scrappy eight frames.

The 23-year-old cue ace from Batley was unable to impose any control on the match and went into the closing session today 5-3 down in the best of 17 frames encounter for the right to play either Davis or Higgins in the quarter-finals.

The only breaks of any note were 45 by Hunter on his way to winning the fourth frame to level at 2-2, 67 by Hunter to win frame six to level the match at 3-3, 61 to Doherty to win the next frame and 46 by the Irishman to give him control of frame eight.

In most frames the reds were scattered round the table in the course of disjointed play and long bouts of safety. Numerous times Hunter missed pots which would have set him up.

World champion Peter Ebdon was delayed in leaving York yesterday to go to London for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards. His second round opponent Dave Harold staged a gritty fightback from 8-3 down to 8-7 and it was 3.30pm before Ebdon won the 16th frame to gain a place in the next round. He plays Alan McManus starting tomorrow afternoon.

"I would be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind that it was a similar situation to the one I was in last year when Ronnie O'Sullivan beat me," said Ebdon, who had a car waiting to drive him from the Barbican to London. "Dave is a very tough opponent and he kept me from the table for a long time but I took my chance when I got it."

World No 2 Mark Williams, 9-2 second round winner yesterday over fellow Welshman Anthony Davies, now plays Scotsman Chris Small starting tomorrow afternoon.

Tim Hart, representing York, beat Harrogate's Brian Pritchard in the York v Harrogate amateur match at the Barbican on Saturday.

A full report and picture will appear later this week.

Tomorrow's matches

Third round - 1pm (opening sessions): Mark Williams v Chris Small, Alan McManus v Peter Ebdon; (closing sessions): Ronnie O'Sullivan v Marco Fu, Steve Davis v John Higgins.

7.30pm (closing sessions): Mark Williams v Chris Small, Alan McManus v Peter Ebdon.

Updated: 15:38 Monday, December 09, 2002