Snooker: Davis happy to return to elite

Ronnie O'Sullivan was approaching his fifth birthday when Steve Davis appeared in his first major final, at the 1980 UK Championship, and won it.

A quarter of a century on and Davis, at the age of 46, was back centre stage again at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff where O'Sullivan denied him a 29th ranking event title to add to his career total which, until the intervention of Stephen Hendry, was a world record.

O'Sullivan, who beat Davis 9-8 to capture the Welsh Open having fallen 1-4 and 5-8 behind to the six-times world champion, admitted: "I can't believe I have won as Steve looked the winner. I'm in a state of shock."

Davis said: "Like the angler who has caught a big one, I failed to land it."

His target is to be among the world's top 16 at the age of 50 though surely by then the most popular player in the game today will have become snooker's first knight of the green baize.

Davis, for whom it was a first appearance in a UK final for seven years, was more than happy to be competing with the best again, admitting: "There have been times when I thought I would never reach another final as I couldn't see how I could overcome some of the players."

It was a view shared by fans as Davis, world No 1 for seven successive seasons in the 1980s, plummeted down the rankings to a position outside the top 16.

The unthinkable happened in 2001-02 when, officially ranked No 21, he failed to qualify for the Crucible stages of the Embassy World Championship.

It was the first time the name of Steve Davis was not among the 32 players taking part in the final rounds since he made his debut at the Sheffield venue in 1979.

Twelve months later Davis was back at the Crucible having won his qualifier. He was beaten in the first round by Stephen Lee but having also reached the semi-finals of the LG Cup and quarter-finals of the Irish Masters last season, Davis was back in the top 16 after jumping from No 25 to 11th, an incredible performance.

Now having reached 99 major finals and won 73 of them, it will be quite a feat if he stretches that record into three figures.

O'Sullivan warned: "Write Steve off at your peril. He still wants to win tournaments."