A bout of hometown nerves from Ireland's Ken Doherty in the inaugural £305,000 Irish Snooker Open abated last night to spare the concerns of anxious officials who were first forced to watch star turn Ronnie O'Sullivan depart before Doherty, one of their biggest draws, took his match to a fraught final deciding frame.

The former world champion initially went 0-2 down to Gerard Greene in the National Basketball Arena, Tallaght, before pulling back to 2-2 just before the interval, knocking in a century break in the process.

He continued after the break with two more frames for a commanding lead of 4-2, but was reeled back in the seventh and eighth games as Greene drew level at 4-4 and forced the match into a nervous deciding game.

Doherty later conceded that he should not have won the match after he missed a brown, but he rode his luck to win 59-21 and advance 5-4. "It is always a bit edgy in front of a home crowd," he said. "This wasn't a great performance from me. I'm relieved more than happy to be going through to the next round. But I've a little more to do with my game if I want to keep progressing in this competition.

"I came back well after the first two games and then he came back into the match. He should have won the last frame. I missed the brown and got away with it. A bit of Irish luck. I'm looking forward to the next round. That's about all I can say about this match."

Doherty now meets Bradley Jones in an afternoon session today. Jones came through easily beating Nigel Bond 5-1.

The relative peace of yesterday's morning session was shattered by Jimmy Michie, 81st in the world rankings, who caught O'Sullivan struggling with form and a loose tip on his cue. O'Sullivan, just back from self-imposed exile, brought on by nervous exhaustion, was finally given the official allotted time of 15 minutes to make running repairs with the match delicately poised at 4-4.

The tip was fastened but the world number three, who threatened to give up the sport but through his manager Ian Doyle requested not to discuss the matter yesterday, became undone, losing 5-4 to give Michie the biggest win of his career to date.

"Anything can happen when you are playing Ronnie," said Michie. "With the 15-minute break I had to leave the arena and try to think again. I'm now in the last 16 and all I can do is focus and hope for a similar performance later in the week."

O'Sullivan's exit is a blow to the tournament as he is one of the biggest attractions, but the 23-year-old, far from his best with a highest break of 64, was stoical in defeat. "I won't make excuses because of the tip, although I was struggling to get power in my shots after it came loose.

"Jimmy potted more pressure shots than I did. Now I'm just looking forward to getting myself together for the next tournament," he said in a brief press conference afterwards.

There was no such disappointment for Stephen Hendry, the former world number one, who also became publicly despondent about the game after he lost 9-0 to fellow Scot Marcus Campbell in the recent UK Championship.

Hendry, who held the world number one spot for eight years and is the sport's leading money earner, had little trouble with Joe Perry, sweeping him aside 5-1.

"I felt quite good out there," Hendry said. "I wasn't put under tremendous pressure, although lately it doesn't matter who has been sitting in the other chair the way I've been playing.

"At the UK Championship I couldn't score even if it was lined up. Now I feel 100 times better. I reckon it will be a month, maybe two before I get back to where I think I should be."

Speaking about recent statements that he might retire, Hendry said: "I meant what I said at the time." He had been appalled by his failure in the German Masters to beat Malta's Tony Drago.

"I was disgusted with the way I had played. But I then regretted what I'd said when I woke up the next morning.

"I don't think my sponsors would have been too pleased to read I was thinking of giving up," added the 29-year-old Scot, clearly much happier than he was in Bingen last Thursday.

"I felt quite good out there, although I didn't play as well as I can. I wasn't really put under any pressure by Joe, but just lately it hasn't really mattered who has been in the chair opposite me.

Jimmy White followed O'Sullivan by making his exit at the first round when he lost to Peter Ebdon 5-4. White, ranked 18 and currently struggling to get back up with the best players in the world, rarely found any fluency in a low-scoring match.

"I played terrible," he said. "The crowd was great and I always enjoy playing in Ireland, but I just didn't play well at all."

There was never more than one frame in the match before Ebdon chiselled out the final game 72-13 with five visits to the table and a highest break of 24.

John Parrott, not entirely pleased with his 10.00 a.m. start, arrived in the basketball arena "knackered" after beating Mark Williams 6-4 in the final of the German Masters last weekend. The world number six took nine games and just over two and a half hours to advance to the next round, beating Dominic Dale 5-4. He finally finished off Dale with breaks of 37 and 45, his highest of the match.

Big-name players Steve Davis and Alain Robidoux each made early exits against relative unknowns. Davis had a number of chances to stay in the tournament but crashed 4-5 to Welsh Open champion Paul Hunter while Robidoux managed only one frame against Scunthorpe's Matthew Couch in a 5-1 drubbing.

In a bizarre comical interlude Australia's Quinten Hann lost in 42 minutes to Stephen Lee in the sixth-fastest tournament match ever over nine frames. Hann at one stage conceded a game leading 8-7 and with 12 reds left on the table before losing 5-0.