Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Ken Doherty 6-5 in the UK Championship

Former world champion Doherty, 49, has enjoyed something of a renaissance of late - lifting the UK Seniors Championship in October - and he beat the well-touted Yuan Sijun in the first round.

The Irishman continued that form against O'Sullivan, racing into a 3-1 lead thanks to breaks of 66, 53, 76 and 77.

The mid-session interval brought little respite for O'Sullivan whose quest for a record seventh UK title looked in tatters when Doherty extended his lead to 4-1 thanks to a run of 71.

O'Sullivan held his nerve, though, a break of 75 keeping him in the match at 4-2 before he claimed frame seven with a break of 76.

The scores were soon all square at 4-4 after O'Sullivan dominated a scrappy frame eight - something of a rarity in a high-quality match - and he led for the first time when he put together a break of 65 only minutes later.

Doherty's fine race appeared to be run at this point but he lifted himself again, taking the match into a decider by shutting out O'Sullivan in the tenth frame.

O'Sullivan was first in the balls in the final frame but allowed Doherty a chance to counter when splitting the reds from the pink and finding himself out of position.

Doherty couldn't make it count though, a risky red to the yellow pocket handing O'Sullivan the initiative which he took gratefully with a match-sealing break of 58.

O'Sullivan allowed himself a fist pump when landing perfectly on frame ball - a rare sign of emotion from The Rocket - before doing the same again when potting the red.

The two players shared a warm hand shake at the conclusion of an enthralling match, but the relief on O'Sullivan's face was clear to see as he left the arena.

O'Sullivan told the BBC afterwards: "He played very well and if I'd have lost today it would have been to the better player. Fortunately for me, I was able to dig deep in the boots.

"I felt very nervous because I'm excited about playing again. I've got a bit of a love back for it.

"It was hard out there today but when you have to dig in the trenches, sometimes those results are more satisfying."

Doherty added: "It was a great match to be involved in and when I went 4-1 up I was feeling great.

"It was just a couple of reds I missed when I was 4-1 and 4-2 up and that was probably the difference in the match.

"He came back very, very strongly, as you would expect, and he played some great stuff at the end.

"I just came up a little bit short but hopefully I can play like this for the rest of the season."

Elsewhere, Ding Junhui also survived a potential banana skin as he fought back to edge out Matthew Selt 6-5 while Judd Trump prevailed by the same scoreline against Dominic Dale.

Another match that went to the wire saw Luca Brecel defeat Liam Highfield 6-5 while David Gilbert got the better of former world champion Peter Ebdon 6-4.

Yan Bingtao cruised past Paul Davison 6-1 and there was similarly smooth progress for Marco Fu who beat Luo Honghao 6-2.

Afternoon results

• Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-5 Ken Doherty
• Martin O'Donnell 6-2 Chen Feilong
• Matthew Selt 5-6 Ding Junhui
• Liam Highfield 5-6 Luca Brecel
• Jak Jones 6-5 Joe Swail
• David Gilbert 6-4 Peter Ebdon
• Paul S Davison 1-6 Yan Bingtao
• Gary Wilson 6-3 Sam Baird

Evening results

• Marco Fu 6-2 Luo Honghao
• Judd Trump 6-5 Dominic Dale
• Joe O'Connor v Andrew Higginson
• Mark Allen v Rory McLeod
• Martin Gould v Hossein Vafaei
• Graeme Dott 6-2 Matthew Stevens
• Chris Wakelin v Ali Carter
• Noppon Saengkham 6-0 Rod Lawler

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