SNOKKER/World Championship: Joe Swail from Northern Ireland became the first seed to go out of the World Championship when he suffered a 10-6 defeat at the hands of Joe Perry yesterday.

Swail, a beaten semi-finalist in the last two years, enjoyed a 5-4 overnight lead, but Perry opened the second session with a 78 break to level the match, and then won five out the next six frames to seal victory.

Ken Doherty was trailing 4-5 in his match to Stuart Bingham of England. The match resumes at 5.45 this evening.

Swail was disappointed to fall at the first hurdle after putting in a lot of practice for the event. "I prepared very well for this tournament," he said. "Maybe I should go back to the days when I rolled in at 9.00 a.m.

"I couldn't get into the match. I wasn't cueing well and I got punished for my mistakes. To come here and play like that is very frustrating."

Perry, who is making his second appearance at The Crucible, fancies his chances of going further. "If I keep playing like that I'm going to take some beating," the Englishman said.

In his match with Doherty, Bingham spurned a golden chance to make only the fifth maximum 147 break in the televised stages of the championship. The world number 44 failed on the penultimate ball as he closed in on the prize of £147,000 for the coveted feat, a figure that would have nearly doubled his career earnings.

Bingham's opportunity came in frame five, with the score level at 2-2. The reds split nicely for the 25-year-old, who stunned then-champion Stephen Hendry by ousting the Scot in his opening match at Sheffield two years ago.

Although he began to show signs of tension, Bingham kept position until leaving himself just a few inches short of perfection on the pink, which he played at pace to try and get on the black.

But the former world amateur champion rattled the pink in the jaws of the pocket and, to rub salt into the wound, cannoned into the black, which dropped in.

The break of 134 did not even prove enough to displace Matthew Stevens' 135 as the highest of the tournament so far.

Ronnie O'Sullivan's 10-5 defeat of Drew Henry showed this mercurial genius as hugely motivated and focused for his world title defence.

For the first few frames he "wasn't that interested" but, as if a light had been switched on within him, he then assembled a very impressive six frame winning streak from 3-3 to 9-3.

His highest breaks were 94 and 91, but it was his 56 clearance to win the 10th frame on the black which was both the highlight of the match and the cruellest thrust for Henry, one of six Scots in the 32-man draw.

Coming to the table with three of the four remaining reds, pink and black all apparently safe, O'Sullivan disposed of them all, holding his run together by memorably rolling a black nine feet down a side cushion to a balk pocket, "a 20 to 1 shot" as his opponent admirably described it.

"I'm not too bothered but I really want to be bothered," said O'Sullivan, whose performances in the last few moths have tended to reflect his depressed, almost uncaring mood. Now, perhaps, he has turned the corner.

Graeme Dott, runner-up in the British Open and semi-finalist in the Welsh Open, came to the Crucible not only on a five-match losing streak but also upset from learning on the eve of the championship that the wife of his manager Alex Lambie has been diagnosed with cancer. Their daughter, Dott's girlfriend, was, he said, "in bits".

Dott nevertheless profited from the Crucible debut nerves of Robin Hull, Finland's top player, to win 10-6. It was later revealed that Mrs Lambie had died hours before Dott's game, the news kept from the player until he had secured victory. No decision on Dott's continued participation has been disclosed.

He had much to be proud of after fighting off a late comeback from Hull. "At 9-3 Robin started to play a bit so I was glad to get over the line," Dott said, referring to the closing phase of the match in which the Finn made breaks of 81 and 70 in closing to 9-6 before Dott's run of 67 ended the match.

The World number 13, Mark King also moved through to the last 16. He avenged his Regal Scottish Open defeat to David Gray earlier this month when he prevailed 10-5 in a scrappy encounter.

Gray had beaten King on his way to the final in Aberdeen, but this time the tables were turned as the 23-year-old failed miserably to reproduce the form he had shown north of the border.

Former Welsh Open runner-up King held a 6-3 lead overnight which was immediately cut by two frames yesterday morning as Gray made a flying start, knocking in breaks of 68 and 58.

But that proved to be Gray's only resistance as King quickly regained total control without needing to hit the heights, a run of 79 in the final frame being King's biggest single contribution.

"To play not so well and still win 10-5 is a great feat for me," said King.

FIRST ROUND

(best of 19 frames)

Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) bt Drew Henry (Sco) 10-5,

Mark King (Eng) bt David Gray (Eng) 10-5.

Graeme Dott (Sco) bt Robin Hull (Fin) 10-6.

Joe Perry (Eng) bt Joe Swail (NI) 10-6.

Matthew Stevens (Wales) beat Mike Dunn (Eng) 10-6

Stephen Hendry (Scot) leads Shaun Murphy (Eng) 6-3 (resumes 09.00 today).

Stuart Bingham (Eng) leads Ken Doherty (Ireland) 5-4 (resumes 17.45 today).