Snooker: O'Sullivan through despite blisters

Ronnie O'Sullivan stormed into the last 16 of the UK Championship at York despite suffering from blisters on his fingers.

The world champion comfortably negotiated his opening match with a 9-2 victory over Ali Carter.

But O'Sullivan admitted: "These blisters really hurt when I put my bridge hand on the baize.

"My hands feel very sore and uncomfortable when I'm down on the shot. They've gone all red and they're weeping.

"I'll have to wish for new fingers at Christmas. Either that or I'll have to get a job labouring to toughen them up. They've never done a day's work."

O'Sullivan raced into a 4-0 lead in only 48 minutes and Carter could not recover.

Helped by a rapid-fire 110 break in frame seven, O'Sullivan led 6-2 after the first session.

He convincingly accounted for the opening frame of the evening and cleared up in each of the following two after a disheartened Carter had twice missed the last red.

"I was pretty pleased with that. It was, well, just an okay performance," said O'Sullivan.

"At 4-0, I knew I had a big lead and I just had to stay concentrating."

O'Sullivan was keen to heap praise on his opponent.

"I know it might sound strange at the moment but I think that Ali could be a future world champion in the making and certainly a tournament winner," insisted O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan goes forward to tackle Worcester's Dave Finbow in the third round on Monday.