Snooker: Winning streak saves Higgins

John Higgins, the 1998 world and UK champion, trailed Allister Carter, the rising world No 31 from Tiptree, 4-1 and 5-2 but assembled a seven-frame winning streak to earn the 9-5 win which carried him to the last 16 of the UK Championship at the Barbican Centre, York.

Carter missed the last red which was the key to the eighth, and the yellow which was as crucial in the ninth. "It was looking very dodgy," said Higgins. "If I had gone 6-2 down, I would have had it all to do."

After reducing his arrears to 5-4 with those two tight frames, Higgins made five frame-winning breaks ­ 60, 77, 87, 98 and, from 57 behind, 67 ­ to go through.

Ronnie O'Sullivan redeemed one of his more careless displays by making consecutive centuries, of 128 and 109, in opening the defence of his title with a 9-2 win over Adrian Gunnell, the world No 70 from Telford.

Last week, Gunnell beat John Parrott, the struggling 1991 world and UK champion, 9-5 to earn his debut on British television, but his normal steadiness did not survive unfamiliar pressures.

O'Sullivan, dissatisfied with his cue tip, bit it off as he left the arena: "I've tried four in three days. That's bad preparation on my part."

Peter Ebdon, who has lost three of his first four matches this season, resumes at noon with a 5-3 lead over Dave Harold despite losing the fifth frame in nightmarish fashion to go 3-2 behind. With Harold needing a snooker, Ebdon miscued in an un-snookered position to give his opponent the penalty points he needed and lost the frame to Harold's green-to-black clearance.

Mark Williams, the No 3 seed, hardly missed a ball, making breaks of 66, 88, 86, 72, 120 and 52, to earn a 7-1 overnight lead over his fellow Welshman, Anthony Davies.