Snooker: Ronnie O'Sullivan slumped to another first-round exit as Ryan Day sent him tumbling out of the Welsh Open. After losing his opening matches at the UK Championship and Wembley Masters, O'Sullivan made a late decision to skip the recent German Masters, to the disapproval of World Snooker chief Barry Hearn.
He showed up in Newport this week, but the 35-year-old's poor form continued as Welshman Day beat him 4-2, starting with back-to-back centuries before crossing the winning line once O'Sullivan passed up a great chance to level at 3-3.
Day had joked about O'Sullivan's erratic tournament attendance record following a final qualifying round victory over Jimmy White, which prevented a meeting of the sport's two biggest crowd-pullers.
But his early play was deadly serious, and highly impressive, with Day firing in breaks of 109 followed by 113 to surge 2-0 ahead.
O'Sullivan hit back with a rapid 100 to cut the gap, but Day took the fourth frame, aided by 24 points from his opponent who took seven attempts to escape from a snooker.
Although O'Sullivan reduced Day's lead to 3-2 following a break of 56, he was wasteful in the sixth frame when he missed a crucial pink.
Looking to disturb the final red which was awkwardly placed by a side cushion, O'Sullivan hardly went close with the attempted pot of the pink.
He flicked the red though, leaving it over the pocket, and Day grasped his chance to win frame and match to set up an all-Welsh second-round tussle with fellow qualifier Matthew Stevens.
Stevens cruised past Shaun Murphy in superb fashion, fashioning a break of 133 in the second frame on his way to a surprising 4-0 success.
The winner of the clash between Day and Stevens will face defending champion John Higgins in the quarter-finals.
Higgins, in his first tournament since losing his father John snr to cancer, became the first man to reach the last eight as he beat Dave Harold 4-1, firing in a total clearance of 136 in the fourth frame.
"To play like that after what he has been through is a testament to the guy," Harold said.
Stephen Hendry made absolutely sure of his place at the World Championship by beating Joe Perry 4-0.
The seven-time world champion will face Stephen Maguire in the last 16 after his fellow Scot beat Gerard Greene 4-2.
Hendry's win means he is certain to be in the top 16 by the cut-off point for the World Championship at the end of this week's tournament.
"I think it was more or less certain before this event, but it's nice to know it's mathematically impossible for me to drop out now," said Hendry on World Snooker's official website.
"I would have been gutted if I'd had to qualify for Sheffield. It would have been a kick in the teeth and damaging to my pride."
Mark Selby joined Higgins in the quarter-finals - but in the opposite side of the draw - with a 4-2 victory over Mark King.
The match was largely slow-paced and scrappy, but Selby finished in style with a break of 102 and awaits the winner of the second-round clash between last season's World Championship finalists, Neil Robertson and Graeme Dott