AllenstillinUKtitlehuntbutSwaillosesouttoJones

ANTRIM’S Mark Allen marched into the third round of the Betway UK Championship in York last night with a comfortable 6-2 win over Rory McLeod.

But Belfast’s Joe Swail is out after losing in the afternoon session, 6-5 to Jak Jones.

Allen’s round three opponent will be Hossein Vafael who defeated Martin Gould 6-4.

Allen (right) raced into a 3-0 lead, then was pegged back to 3-1. A 99-6 win with a 60 break in the fifth frame was followed by a 92 break as Allen cleared the table to win 92-31 in the sixth.

McLeod took the seventh to make it 5-2 but Allen completed the win, 59-56, in the eighth.

Tournament favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan survived an unexpected scare before continuing his title defence.

O’Sullivan was 3-0 and 4-1 down to Ken Doherty in their second-round clash at the Barbican, before recovering to win 6-5 in an 11th-frame decider.

While Doherty is a former world champion, he is on the Tour courtesy of a two-year invitation from World Snooker, so a win over O’Sullivan would have been a huge shock.

O’Sullivan, who turns 43 on Wednesday, is aiming for a record seventh title in the event. He is currently level with Stephen Hendry on 18 ‘Triple Crown’ victories — a name that covers the World Championship, UK Championship and Masters.

Ding Junhui beat Matthew Selt 6-5 and Joe Perry beat Michael Holt 6-1, but Peter Ebdon lost 6-4 to David Gilbert and a frustrated John Higgins suffered a 6-5 loss to Alan McManus.

There were also afternoon victories for Martin O’Donnell, Luca Brecel, Yan Bingtao, Gary Wilson and Mark King.

Judd Trump defeated Dominic Dale 6-5 in the evening session as Ali Carter overcame Chris Wakelin 6-4. Joe O’Connor completed the night’s play with a 6-4 win over Andrew Higginson.