Outlaw outfoxed by Higgins

Higgins: Victorious

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• Ding hits maximum but loses
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• Selby stunned in Telford
• Rocket off to a flyer
• UK Championship results

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Former world champion John Higgins secured his place in the second round of the UK Championship with a battling 9-7 win over Joe Swail.

The pair, after resuming at 4-4, traded frames throughout an attritional session before Higgins hit form to take the last two in succession.

The crucial moment came at 8-7 as Swail mis-hit a shot trying to snooker Higgins behind the yellow and failed to make contact.

Higgins, following up a fluent 73 in the previous frame, made the most of the mistake to power through with his best snooker of the afternoon.

Prior to that the scores had been locked at 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7 as both players struggled to settle into any rhythm and made a number of mistakes.

Fightback

In other results, Peter Ebdon came back from 5-3 down to see off Andrew Higginson 9-8.

Australian Neil Robertson overcame Michael Holt 9-7 and Shaun Murphy beat Martin Gould by the same scoreline.

Mark Allen crushed Stuart Bingham 9-2 while Ali Carter, leading 6-2, was awarded a 9-2 win over Ian McCulloch after his opponent withdrew through illness.

In the final first-round match, Ding Junhui held off a late fightback from veteran Steve Davis to win 9-6 in a repeat of the 2005 final.

World champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was in impressive form during the first session of his second round clash against Joe Perry.

'The Rocket' hit three centuries as he over came a 2-0 deficit to take a 5-3 overnight lead while elsewhere Mark King and Stephen Lee are locked at 4-4.