Carter leaves Hendry in the shade

Stephen Hendry has a mountain to climb to keep alive his hopes of an eighth 888.com World Championship title after falling 6-2 behind to Ali Carter in their second-round match today.

The world number one was completely outshone by bogey-man Carter, who lost two of the first three frames but then compiled runs of 78 and two 72s before rounding off the session with a brilliant 111 to turn the screw on Hendry.

Playing his first tournament with a new cue, Hendry had struggled to overcome Crucible rookie David Gilbert in the first round and will need to call on his vast experience to battle back into this match when it resumes tomorrow night.

Stephen Maguire will face Anthony Hamilton in the quarter-finals after both men recorded 13-8 victories today.

Hamilton was first of the duo to reach the last eight, doing so for the fourth time, at the expense of Ian McCulloch who had ousted title-holder Graeme Dott in the opening round.

Maguire, winner of the UK Championship in 2004, resisted a comeback from Joe Swail and on Tuesday will contest his first quarter-final in this event on his fourth appearance.

The Scot resumed with an 11-5 lead but could do nothing as his Northern Irish opponent knocked in breaks of 82, 72 and 77 to reduce his deficit.

But a 61 and a 62 either side of the mid-session interval re-asserted Maguire's authority and proved enough to send him through.

Maguire said: 'Joe is known as a comeback player and has done that numerous times against me and other players. He seems to play his best snooker when he's four frames behind, which is strange.

'I never played really well - just well enough to win. I think, if Joe had played better, I could have raised my game a bit. But if you can win by just playing okay then you should feel good.'

Swail, conqueror of two-time former champion Mark Williams in the first round, admitted he had let the match slip away from him yesterday.

Swail said: ' I left myself far too much to do. At 11-5 down, you basically have to win every frame, but I gave it a good shot and never gave up.'