SNOOKER star Ronnie O'Sullivan, safely over the first hurdle in his bid to regain the UK title, isn't sure what the future holds for him.

"I'm on a new journey and I don't know where it's going but we will see what happens," he said after comfortably completing a 9-3 second round win over Ian McCulloch at York's Barbican Centre to set up a Travis Perkins UK Snooker Championship third round match with Alan McManus tomorrow.

"I want to see how good Ronnie can get. I am going to enjoy it whatever way I play. I want to treat Ronnie kindly," he added, referring to himself in the third person much of the time.

"Alan has had a great win (McManus came from 7-1 down to beat Dominic Dale 9-8 in the second round) but he ain't played me yet."

McCulloch, from Preston who was runner-up in the British Open last year, started yesterday's second session of his match 7-1 down against the 2001 world and UK champion but came out fighting with breaks of 104 and then 75 cut the gap to 7-3. O'Sullivan responded with a clinical 126 clearance and wrapped things up with a 115 break for victory.

A weekend of shocks continued with world number four John Higgins crashing 9-4 to Thailander James Wattana, who had led 5-3 on Saturday night.

UK defending champion Mark Williams is back home in Cardiff following his shock 9-7 defeat by Dublin's Fergal O'Brien on Saturday night in a match latterly littered with errors. O'Brien's third round match against Jimmy White started this afternoon and will finish tomorrow afternoon.

Higgins, 5-3 down at the start of play yesterday, never got back into the match as Wattana played some superb snooker to stay in control.

"He played much better than me throughout the match. I never got into it," admitted Higgins, whose poor tournament season continued despite his back-to-back 147 breaks in the LG Cup last month and then the British Open two weeks ago.

"I am disappointed about the defeat but will try not to get too despondent. I am feeling great about my game but it is just not happening for me.

"James is one of the really nice guys on the circuit. He is always a gentleman, even when things haven't been going well for him, and so good luck to him in the tournament."

Wattana, who has slipped to 34th in the world rankings after having been number three nine years ago, plays Matthew Stevens in the third round, starting tonight and finishing tomorrow afternoon.

"I did not expect to beat John 9-4. I expected it to be a lot closer," Wattana said later. "The balls were running kindly for me , but it is about time I got a bit of luck.

Leeds star Paul Hunter led Alan King 5-3 in their second round match being played to a finish this afternoon. Hunter made a 105 break in the eighth frame and might have turned the clearance into a maximum 147 but missed the 14th black.

In the other matches finishing this afternoon Barry Pinches led Stephen Lee 6-2, while Australian Quinten Hann won five frames in a row to lead Peter Ebdon 5-3.

In the match finishing tonight Nigel Bond and Joe Perry are tied 4-4.

Updated: 12:42 Monday, November 24, 2003