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O'Sullivan fights back to deny Davis

in Cardiff
Sun 25 Jan 2004 20.29 EST

Ronnie O'Sullivan's 9-8 victory gave him the Welsh Open title last night and denied Steve Davis his 29th world-ranking title, a full nine years after his 28th.

At 46, Davis was attempting to become the oldest ranking-title winner since Doug Mountjoy, who was two months older when he won the 1989 Mercantile Classic. But from three up with four to play, Davis could not deliver the decisive thrust and O'Sullivan snatched the victory.

"I let him off the hook at 8-5 and he came back really well," said Davis. "I feel like an angler who had a big one there for the taking but failed to land it."

O'Sullivan, who captured his first title since winning the Irish Masters 10 months ago, said it was "an unbelievable" match to be involved in.

"I don't know how I won it. I really don't. I kept giving him the upper hand and things kept going against me. At 8-5 I had my back against the wall and I came out fighting," he remarked.

Not having won a match in the season's previous three events, Davis arrived in Cardiff with low expectations but his 5-2 win over the world No4 John Higgins, the first time in 20 attempts he had beaten him, changed his psychological perspective.

"I've been at the stage where I honestly couldn't see how I could overcome some of the top players," he said. "I always knew I could still play the game but these days the pressure gets to me too much. This week, it hasn't."

He was helpless in his chair in the quarter-finals when Robert Milkins led him 4-3 and 28-0 with the balls invitingly spread for a match-clinching break but the world No21 faltered on the verge of his first ranking semi-final and Davis ultimately prevailed 5-4.

In the semi-final he outplayed Hong Kong's Marco Fu in all departments to win 6-3, and yesterday he exploited O'Sullivan's early uncertainty to lead 3-0 and then 4-1.

Davis was also poised to lead 5-1 but lost position with four reds remaining and missed one of them from distance. O'Sullivan, staking everything on the difficult and risky red he was left, capitalised in full on his reprieve, taking the frame at that visit and running imperiously through the remaining two of the afternoon with breaks of 125 and 139, the latter the highest of the tournament.

Davis recaptured the lead by stealing the first frame of the evening after needing a snooker and added a decisive 66 break to lead 6-4.

O'Sullivan responded with a dashing 103 before Davis contrived a superb clearance to the pink of 53, developing the last red from a safe position with one of the shots of the tournament as he led 7-5 at the intermission.

This became 8-5 in extraordinary fashion when O'Sullivan, disgusted with himself at missing an easy ball, conceded when trailing by only five points with Davis still needing the first four colours to win the frame.

"It would have been nice if Ronnie had collapsed after conceding that frame but he came back with a great century," Davis said later.

O'Sullivan took a couple of minutes out of the arena to recover his composure and responded with a cavalier century, 118, in a mere five minutes.

The 2001 world champion's recovery gathered momentum with a frame-winning 77 after Davis had gone in-off on 40-0.

With a late 48 from 20 behind, O'Sullivan levelled to preface a 33-minute decider with innumerable twists and turns before Davis made the fatal last error on the last red.