Snooker: O'Sullivan content with 'decent' effort after stroll to victory over veteran Davis

Ronnie O’Sullivan began his quest for a fifth UK Championship title (PA)

Ronnie O'Sullivan was happy with his form after beating Steve Davis 6-1 to reach the last 16 of the UK Championship in York yesterday.

O'Sullivan said: "I made a few decent breaks, all round it was pretty decent. When you get some confidence you can get some momentum going. But I'm just glad to be in the next round, it was nice to get a win and get through."

He added: "It's nice to play Steve even in practice, you can learn so much from watching him. He's a legend. He's got so much class, just the way he hits the ball, but he's probably not playing with as much confidence as he used to. I think that's the key to this game."

Davis admitted he had stayed with O'Sullivan in the early frames but after that was out of the contest. He said: "I enjoyed the first frame and I had a chance in the second – after that it was one-way traffic. Ronnie was hitting the ball beautifully and I wasn't good enough. When you play against the very top players, you have to be even more perfect because any mistakes are magnified."

A treble in the opening frame gave Davis the early edge but he had little else to shout about against O'Sullivan (right) in a first session in which strong safety play, rather than flamboyant potting, was in evidence from both players. A break of 123 was the highlight as "The Rocket" took a 3-1 lead into the mid-session interval.

O'Sullivan followed up with a knock of 97 in the first frame after the resumption, and while Davis had a chance in the sixth frame he missed a vital pink. A break of 53 then gave O'Sullivan control of the next frame and a knock of 62 wrapped up the match and set up a match against either Judd Trump or Dominic Dale.

Meanwhile, world No 1 Mark Selby thrashed Ryan Day 6-0. Selby, seeking his maiden UK Championship title, settled quickly against Day and never looked back as he restricted his Welsh opponent to a top break of just 24. After an even opening frame, Selby compiled breaks of 86, 111, 90 and 69 to race 5-0 clear. In the sixth, Day potted his first ball for 36 minutes but missed a simple pink to let Selby return to seal the win. The Englishman will face Marco Fu in the second round.