O'Sullivan crashes out against Perry

Snooker : Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan crashed out of the UK Championships tonight, losing 9-5 to Joe Perry in Telford…

Snooker: Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan crashed out of the UK Championships tonight, losing 9-5 to Joe Perry in Telford.

O'Sullivan began the day 5-3 up. But Perry quickly levelled, with a break of 105 in the 10th frame making it 5-5.

Perry needed a little luck in the next frame, a missed red riding down the rail before landing back on the table.

O'Sullivan seemed to have lost all interest, and conceded the next frame at only 23-0 down to go 7-5 behind.

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When the session got back under way, Perry took full advantage of whatever was affecting O'Sullivan and quickly wrapped up victory by taking the final two frames to give himself a clean sweep of all six frames today.

Earlier, Ding Junhui recorded a superb maximum 147 break but was staring at a likely heavy defeat in his match with John Higgins.

Chinese player Ding was trailing former world champion Higgins 2-0 when he produced the maximum clearance.

After potting 15 reds and 15 blacks, the Chinese star looked nervous as he attempted to clear the colours.

But after stepping away from the table for a calming sip of water, he coolly potted the pink and black to rapturous applause from the crowd and opponent Higgins.

Ding moved into prime position to claim the £5,000 high break prize and £25,000 bonus for the maximum - although that money would be split if another player records a 147.

Higgins won the next frame to take a 3-1 lead into the mid-session interval, and then reeled off the next four, which left Ding just two frames from defeat at 7-1 down.

Australian Neil Robertson opened up a 5-3 lead over Scotland's Stephen Maguire, in the afternoon action, while Shaun Murphy and Mark Allen were tied at 4-4, as were Ali Carter and Peter Ebdon.

In the other action, two former world champions - Scotland's Graeme Dott and Welshman Mark Williams - were battling out another close contest and with Williams ahead 8-7 they faced a nervy finish to their match.