Davis through to last eight

The St Leonards cueman followed up his excellent 5-2 win over world number 11 Ding Junhui on Tuesday with a hard-fought 5-3 victory against Jamie Burnett this afternoon (Thursday).

World number 19 Davis got off to the perfect start by pulling away to take the first frame and coming from behind to claim the second.

He threatened to pinch the third as well despite trailing throughout, eventually losing it on the colours, and world number 39 Burnett compiled a half-century to win the fourth for 2-2.

Davis opened the first frame after the interval with a 44 en route to going back in front at 3-2 only for Burnett, who beat former world champion Neil Robertson 5-1 in round one, to pull away after a tight start to frame six.

Davis went ahead again at 4-3 after scraping through an epic seventh frame on the black and sealed his second successive victory over Scottish cueman Burnett with a run of 75 in frame eight.

He will now play another Scot, Graeme Dott, in the quarter-finals tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. Dott, the world number 13 who won the World Championship in 2006, edged out qualifier Rod Lawler 5-4 this afternoon.

Davis, 39, has never gone beyond the last eight of a full ranking event during a 21-year professional career. The last of his three previous quarter-final appearances was at the 2010 Shanghai Masters when he lost to Burnett.