Ronnie O’Sullivan came back after losing the first two frames to Matthew Stevens to easily book his place in the second round of the UK Snooker Championship, winning 9-3.

O’Sullivan stopped the rot in the third frame and once he had got one frame under his belt, there was little the Welshman could do to stop him.

Stevens led 48-4 in the fourth frame but let O'Sullivan in and the former world champion made an 80 clearance to level the scores.

O'Sullivan won the next frame as well to edge ahead at 3-2 but Stevens did hit back with a break of 101.

O’Sullivan was still nowhere near his best but after extending his lead to 7-3, he won an absorbing 11th frame on the pink to effectively end any lingering Stevens' hopes.

The Rocket was then looking at a possible 147 in the last frame but broke down on 64.

O'Sullivan, who reeled off six frames in a row either side of the interval, will play old foe Peter Ebdon in the second round.

Four second round matches also got under way last night and, in the pick of them, Mark Selby claimed a 5-3 lead over Stephen Hendry.

Selby fired in three century breaks, including total clearances of 132 and 141, but could not fully shake off seven-time world champion Hendry.

The Scot had a good chance to get out of the session level at 4-4 but Selby compiled a break of 69 for a two-frame cushion.

In yesterday’s other first round matches, China’s Ding Junhui took a 7-5 lead over England’s Mike Dunn.

Former world championship finalist Ali Carter won the last two frames of the session to be level at 4-4 with Rory McLeod.

The pair went on the share the next four frames to be level once again at |6-6.

And qualifier Peter Lines continued his impressive form by taking a 8-3 lead over Hong Kong's Marco Fu.