PETER EBDON completed a 10-1 first round victory over Dene O'Kane at the Embassy World Championship in Sheffield last night - then admitted his lightning start had caught him off guard.

The Londoner, fourth favourite to collect the £200,000 first prize, finished off the New Zealander by winning the first two frames of last night's session after laying the foundations on Saturday with a run of eight successive frames.

"I didn't expect to be playing so well this soon," revealed the world No 10. "I had hoped to be playing at 70-80 per cent of my potential, then hopefully improve the longer the tournament went on. Now I've given myself plenty to build on for my next match."

In contrast to his superb exhibition of break-building in the first session, Ebdon laboured to finish off O'Kane.

But back-to-back breaks of 42 enabled him to set up a second round tic with six times runner-up Jimmy White or Scottish out-sider Euan Henderson.

Ebdon's clearance of 144 in the third frame is the highest of the 13 century breaks so far, and he also added a 138 for good measure.

am delighted with how the table is playing," added 25-year-old Ebdon, who is still looking for his first major success of the year.

"The tables have quite rightly taken a lot of stick recently and I've been one of those complaining. But conditions here are how they should be for a professional tournament of this magnitude."

O'Kane, who had practised for the championship in the club owned by Ebdon's father-in-law, was so impressed by his opponent's display that he tipped him to win the tournament.

That's the best anyone has ever played against me," said world No 18 O'Kane. The only criticism I can find is maybe Peter is playing too well too soon.

Earlier, Ronnie O'Sullivan's crowd-pleasing display during his 10-3 demolition of French Canadian Alain Robidoux led to a slanging match that could land him in trouble.

Outspoken O'Sullivan qualified for the last 16 with an easy victory but he angered Robidoux with his decision to play a number of shots left-handed towards the end.

And when the furious Robidoux lashed his Essex rival for being "disrespectful" outspoken O'Sullivan hit back.

I didn't give him any respect because he didn't deserve any, said the 20-year-old from Chigwell.

"I'm good left handed, I've made 90 breaks playing that way. In fact, I'm better left handed than he is right handed. If he wants to act like a baby that's up to him. The crowd enjoyed it, that's the main thing."

Robidoux, ironically holder of the World trickshot championship refused to shake hands at the end of their ill-tempered match.

"Ronnie was being disrespectful to his fellow professionals and should save shots like that for exhibitions," he said.

"I wasn't playing well and he was rubbing it in. Dennis Taylor occasionally plays left handed that's just because sometimes reluctant to use the rest. In fact he shouldn't be allowed to play like that in a professional tournament.

Recordings of O'Sullivan's outbursts are now being studied by the game's governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.

Rod Lawler is threatening the first shock of the tournament after taking a hard-fought 6-3 overnight lead against fellow Liverpudlian John Parrott.

But he will be well aware that Jason Ferguson held the same advantage over Stephen Hendry after the first session before losing 10-8.

World No 40 Lawler, runner-up in this season's International Open, served notice that he would be no pushover for the 1991 world champion by taking the first three frames in only 47 minutes.

Lawler, facing Parrott for the first time as a professional, clearly did not find the Crucible atmosphere intimidating as he compiled breaks of 76, 53 and 42 to put himself well on the way to the second round.

And Lawler could have found himself in an even stronger position but lost the sixth frame to a 26 clearance after being 54-38 ahead.

The players resume this afternoon with a maximum of 10 more frames to discover which of them will meet Dave Harold in the second round.