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Crucible updates

Postby footygirl

OK people well no matches concluding tonight here at the Crucible but Steve Davis has achieved his first objective in taking his clash with Neil Robertson into the final Session. Davis was a poor shadow of the man who stunned defending champion John Higgins on Stunning Saturday while Neil Robertson came back from the brink to defeat Martin Gould.

Mahybe this was a a bridge too far for Steve who fell 7-1 down at the mid session interval. The 52 year old suffering from a succession of missed chances and bad shot selection. But Davis these days is nothing if not a fighter and refused to cave into the Australians onslaught as he pieced together a break of 128, his highest of the season.

Robertson will surely kick himself in frame 15 when he blew a golden chance for victory. With one red on the table close to the centre pocket he overcut the ball and allowed Davis a reprieve. Coolly dispatching the remaining 35 points Steve snatched the frame from out of the fire by two points to cut his deficit to nine frames. And with just one frame left of the session Robertson was keen to finish it off and give himself a day off. Still though he was denied by a gutsy Davis who dropped in the yellow, green, brown and blue before winning a safety duel on the pink.

The pink was mid length table and Davis rifled it into the top corner pocket, turned and shook Robertson's hand - they will resume tomorrow at 12-4 and play to a finish in the afternoon session.

Elsewhere Graeme Dott staged a fightback to be locked with Mark Allen at 8-8. Allen was out of the traps like a greyhound as he built a 4-0 lead against Dott who then turned the tables to be only 5-3 down at the end of the first session. Dott though must have thought he had won that opening session as he returned the better player tonight. He quickly wiped out the two frame deficit and then matched the Northern Irishman frame for frame to be level at 8-8.

Shaun Murphy has a 5-3 lead over Allister Carter while Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Selby are level at 4-4 after the first session of their eagerly awaited showdown. They resume tomorrow afternoon and will play to a finish tomorrow night.

Suzy Jardine -The Crucible