Davis pulls off comeback win

The St Leonards potter won the last three frames to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 6-5 victory over Joe Perry in York last night (Tuesday).

In fact, Davis was never ahead until he closed out the win and will now take on James Cahill from 7pm tonight for a place in the quarter-finals.

The opening four frames were shared. World number 14 Perry won the first and third with breaks of 69 and 54 respectively, while 19th-ranked Davis clinched the second and fourth with best runs of 36 and 43.

Perry claimed frame five in a single visit thanks to a 95 and a 49 in the next gave him a two-frame cushion for the first time. Although Davis took frame seven, Perry bagged the eighth aided by a closing 41 to lead 5-3.

A break of 80 in frame nine got Davis back to 5-4 and he scraped through the next on the black courtesy of a 25 clearance. The decider was also tight, but Davis eventually took it 67-38.

The 42-year-old, who was a semi-finalist in the event two years ago, defeated Liam Highfield 6-4 and Jak Jones 6-2 in the previous two rounds.

His next opponent Cahill caused a major upset last night by knocking out Chinese star Ding Junhui. The 18-year-old from Blackpool, ranked 100 in the world, eventually prevailed 6-5 in an epic contest which finally finished at around 12.40am.

Cahill actually led 5-1 at one stage and could well have won it 6-1. Cahill was on the cusp of winning 6-4 when Ding needed three snookers in frame 10, but Ding showed tremendous fighting spirit to force a decider. Cahill regrouped, though, and an excellent 56 break helped get him over the line.