WORLD snooker champion Stephen Hendry went from night owl to early

bird to wing his way into the last 16 of the #200,000 British Open at

Plymouth yesterday.

Hendry, who completed a first-round win over Cliff Thorburn in the

early hours of Saturday morning, was up for 10am to begin against New

Zealand's Dene O'Kane.

''It's the system, and you've just got to put up with it,'' said the

Scot after an undistinguished 5-2 win over the Kiwi.

After a run of first-round exits, Hendry is trying to rebuild his

confidence before his forthcoming defence of his world title. Tonight he

meets Mansfield's Jason Ferguson, who defeated Steve James 5-3.

Thailand's James Wattana also moved into the third round before

heading off to his hotel sauna. A mystery headache that has dogged him

for over a week has been diagnosed as being caused by blocked sinuses.

After his 5-2 success over Mark Johnston-Allen, the Thai now meets

Welshman Darren Morgan for the right to meet Tony Drago in the

quarter-finals.

Morgan hit two century breaks to level at 3-3 as he staged a recovery

on Saturday after having dropped the first three frames to Scottish

teenager John Higgins. The Scot led again at 4-3 but Morgan won the last

two frames.

Drago, the world No.20, reached the last eight when he extended Jimmy

White's barren spell by recording a high-speed 5-2 victory in only 81

minutes.

Nigel Bond has a 5-3 success over Liverpool's John Parrott and will

play Irishman Ken Doherty or teenager Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last

eight. O'Sullivan beat Willie Thorne 5-2 yesterday in the last

second-round match.

Man-in-form Steve Davis, who has his eye on a seventh world title at

Sheffield, had to dig deep into his reserves to beat local player Andy

Hicks 5-4. Davis, who came back from 3-0 down, earned a quarter-final

against 51-year-old former world finalist Doug Mountjoy, who had a 5-3

third-round win over Dave Harold. Results:

Second round -- S Hendry (Scotland) beat D O'Kane (New Zealand) 5-2; J

Ferguson (England) beat S James (England) 5-3; J Wattana (Thailand) beat

M Johnston-Allen (England) 5-2; R O'Sullivan (England) beat W Thorne

(England) 5-2.

Third round -- N Bond (England) beat J Parrott (England) 5-3; T Drago

(Malta) beat J White (England) 5-2; D Mountjoy (Wales) beat D Harold

(England) 5-3; S Davis (England) beat A Hicks (England) 5-4.