YORKSHIREMAN Paul Hunter is feeling confident as he prepares to take on defending champion John Higgins in York tomorrow in the third round of the UK Championship.

"I'm up for it. It would be great for a Yorkshireman to win this title in York," the 23-year-old star from Leeds, who would dearly love to knock out Higgins and go on to lift the trophy and £100,000 first prize on Yorkshire soil, said after his 9-7 second round victory yesterday over Joe Perry.

And former world champion Higgins admitted after beating fellow Scot Chris Small 9-5 yesterday that he is not playing at his best, though a 136 break in the last frame was a timely warning to Hunter.

"I played well through the match, with the odd mistake," said Benson and Hedges Masters champion Hunter about his second round win. "When he got back to 8-7 I started to get a bit nervous, though."

Hunter was 7-4 ahead by then lost three of the next four frames to the European Open beaten finalist before a 95 break in the 13th frame took him to the verge of victory, which he completed in the next frame with a 65 break.

"It's great to come to play at a new venue like York, which is only 25 miles up the road from where I live, and I hope the UK Championship will stay in York for many years..," added Hunter, who started the season ranked ninth in the world but has moved up one place to eighth in the provisional list.

"I have lost in the early rounds of my two ranking tournaments so far this season, so I do want to do well here."

Higgins, who is bidding to win the UK title for the third time in four years, admitted after beating Small: "My game is still not entirely there. It will be tough against Paul, but it will be good to play him at my own rhythm. It should be a more flowing game."

World champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, who coasted to a 9-2 second round win over his practice partner Ali Carter on Saturday night, began his third round match this afternoon against Dave Finbow, from Worcestershire, who knocked out Dave Harold in the second round.

Jimmy White, who says he is "fighting for my career" to stay in the world's top echelons, had another battle on his hands this afternoon against Matthew Stevens. White, 9-6 conqueror of Hong Kong's Marco Fu on Saturday night, kept his hopes alive by winning the last two frames yesterday to trail Stevens 5-3 going into today's final session of their third round match.

Stephen Hendry included a 134 break yesterday on his way to being 6-2 ahead of his third round opponent Mark Davis.

Updated: 11:55 Monday, December 10, 2001