Stephen Hendry, who spent eight years as world No1 in the 1990s, winning seven Crucible titles in the process, questioned whether his career might be in terminal decline after losing 5-3 to Ian McCulloch in the third round of the Totesport grand prix yesterday.

"I'm not the player I was," he said. "It's incredible I'm ranked in the top four. It's just through determination and being consistent over the last few years. I'm not happy with winning one tournament a year."

Hendry, who started his 20th season as a professional as the world No3, led 3-2 but McCulloch, ranked 17th, drew level with a run of 69 and exploited the Scot's mistakes to edge 4-3 ahead. Hendry missed a straightforward red on 67 in the eighth and McCulloch cleared with 72 for victory, which followed his success against Jimmy White on Wednesday.

Paul Hunter, born the same year that Steve Davis turned professional, defeated the 47-year-old veteran for the seventh time in eight meetings to reach the quarter-finals.

Hunter, 26 next week, did not allow Davis to dictate the pace and compiled breaks of 71, 66, 114, 53 and 65 in completing a 5-1 victory.

The Irishman Michael Judge reached the second major quarter-final of his career in beating Hong Kong's Marco Fu 5-1 and Peter Ebdon, the 2002 world champion, was beaten 5-3 by Mark Selby, the world No36. In the evening Ronnie O'Sullivan beat Graeme Dott, whom he defeated to win the world title last May, 5-3 and James Wattana, the Thai No1, reached his first quarter-final for five years in defeating Stephen Lee 5-1.