Ken Doherty turned on the style in York last night to hit Welshman Dominic Dale for six at the UK Championship.

The number four seed and 1997 champion is two thirds of the way to the quarter-finals of the £746,000 event at the Barbican Centre.

Doherty resumes this afternoon with a 6-2 advantage after winning six of the last seven frames after Dale took the first 81-nil and then made the highest break of the tournament with a 140 in the seventh.

Peter Ebdon maintained the possibility of the quarter-finals being contested by the world's top eight players when he beat Tony Drago 9-7.

The seventh seed withstood a tenacious fightback from the "Maltese Falcon" - who recovered from 8-4 down to 8-7 but just fell short of forcing a decider.

"Tony played very well," said Ebdon, who will meet Ronnie O'Sullivan on Thursday.

"He's a tremendous entertainer, a fantastic ambassador for snooker and an absolute credit to the game.

"Tony made it very tough for me - he probably deserved to win because I didn't play very well."

Earlier O'Sullivan reached the quarter-finals a day earlier than expected after his opponent Dave Finbow withdrew due to an anxiety attack.

The world champion won all eight frames of their first session to leave himself just one away from victory, spending less than two hours in the arena as his opponent scored a total of only 90 points.

Stephen Hendry and Matthew Stevens also advanced to the quarter-finals but with contrasting wins.

Stevens was pushed all the way by Jimmy White, who fought back from 5-1 down to trail 8-7 before the Welshman gained the one frame he needed.

Hendry stormed to a 9-2 win over Mark Davis. Leading 6-2 overnight, the Scot was back in the arena for less than an hour as he knocked in breaks of 71, 127 and 51.