Davis exacts revenge on world champ Dott

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14 April 2012

Steve Davis rolled back the years to knock world champion Graeme Dott out of the Welsh Open in Newport tonight - then went in search of a hotel room.

In the 1980s, when Davis was snooker's dominant force, it was well known that opponents were in the habit of checking out of their digs on the morning of the match in order to save money.

Having amassed more than £5.5million in career prize money, Davis does not need to be so frugal. But he was realistic enough to know that Dott, successful in their three most recent meetings, was a warm favourite.

However, at the end of an intriguing battle, it was Dott who was packing his bags and heading home to Scotland as Davis, who turns 50 in August, secured a 5-3 victory.

"To beat the world champion and someone whose put me to bed a few times in recent years is great," said the veteran campaigner, who captured the last two of his 28 world ranking titles at the Welsh Open in 1994 and 1995.

"Graeme's enjoying being world champion and he's played pretty good this season without winning anything so I'm delighted with the result."

Davis laid the foundation for his surprise success by building a 3-1 lead at the mid-session interval with breaks of 82, 69 and 76. Explaining his fluency, Davis added: "I'm hitting the ball quite straight at the moment and when you're confident about your potting you can devote a greater percentage of your concentration to positional play."

Dott stubbornly recovered to 4-3 and had an opportunity to force a deciding frame but missed the yellow to a baulk pocket and Davis stepped in with a match-clinching clearance to pink.

"That's the best I've seen Steve play for a very long time," said Dott, still waiting to lift his first trophy since triumphing at the Crucible last May.

"Steve's safety is always good but he scored heavily as well and that's tough to cope with. I'm not going to slaughter myself over this. I wasn't great out there but I think a lot of that was down to Steve. He put me under pressure from the word go."

In what will be his 84th world ranking event quarter-final appearance, Davis faces Nottingham's Anthony Hamilton, who advanced with a hard fought 5-3 win over fellow Midlander Dave Harold.

What a difference a day made for Shaun Murphy, who retained hope of claiming back-to-back world ranking titles, but only after an almighty struggle with Jamie Burnett.

In the previous round Murphy fired in a record four consecutive centuries in a 72-minute, 5-0 whitewash of Jamie Cope but Burnett proved a much tougher nut to crack.

Apart from the fourth frame, which Murphy took with a run of 134, the 2005 world champion was made to toil hard in a three hour, 48 minute grind.

Murphy led 4-2 but Burnett, the second-round conqueror of Mark Williams, accounted for the seventh frame with a 104 break and stole the eighth on the blue after Murphy, with chance to clinch the match, had missed a straightforward brown.

Murphy, who did not allow Burnett to pot a ball in the crucial ninth frame, explained: "When it went 4-4 I was devastated but I've been in that situation tons of times in the past and I told myself that I knew how to win deciders if needs be.

"This is just as satisfying as what happened against Jamie only in a different way. It's all about getting to five frames first and that's what I've done."

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