Rocket blown away

O'Sullivan: Crashed out

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Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan crashed out of the UK Championships on Tuesday, losing all six of the day's frames to go down 9-5 to Joe Perry in Telford.

O'Sullivan began the day 5-3 up in their second round clash but Perry quickly levelled, including with a break of 105 in the 10th frame to make it 5-5.

Perry enjoyed some luck in wining the next frame as a missed red rode 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 before Perry quickly wrapped up victory, taking the final two frames of the match when the session got back under way.

Afterwards, O'Sullivan hailed Perry's performance, rather than criticising his own display.

Played great

The 33-year-old world champion said: "He played great - I wasn't going to win today.

"His safety was great, he scored when he got in and didn't miss much.

"I didn't have any tip issues, I just got outplayed on the day. Sometimes you've just got to hold your hands up."

O'Sullivan's concession in the 12th frame brought back memories of this competition two years ago, when he conceded his best-of-17-frame quarter-final against Stephen Hendry in York while trailing only 4-1.

He added: "It might have looked like I lost my head but I'm sure I'll bounce back - you've just got to roll with it sometimes."

In the other second round matches, Stephen Lee saw off Mark King 9-5, while Marco Fu beat Matthew Stevens and Ali Cater overcame Peter Ebdon by the same margin.

Mark Williams progressed with a 9-7 victory over Graeme Dott, as did Shaun Murphy over Mark Allen.

In the final match of the evening, Scotland's Stephen Maguire snatched the decisive final frame to beat Neil Robertson 9-8.