Breaking news: Davis into last eight

Mark Davis is through to the quarter-finals of the Australian Goldfields Open. Picture courtesy World Snooker

The St Leonards cueman overcame Alfie Burden 5-3 in round two this morning (Thursday) to set up a last eight clash against world number two Mark Selby in the early hours of tomorrow.

Davis, who came back from the brink of defeat to scrape past Paul Davison 5-4 in round one on Wednesday, took the opening frame against Burden 66-25 and opened up a 2-0 lead by cruising through the second 97-0 with a break of 83.

Burden got himself on the scoreboard by grabbing frame three 70-1 only for Davis to restore his two-frame cushion going into the interval by winning the fourth 82-5 with all his points coming in a single visit.

Davis moved to the brink of victory by rattling through the fifth 86-0 thanks to a run of 85 - his third 80+ break of the match - but 52nd-ranked Burden stayed alive by winning the sixth 78-0 helped by a 50 and the seventh 65-17 with a best effort of 51.

World number 16 Davis, who lost to good friend and eventual winner Barry Hawkins in a high class semi-final 12 months ago, eventually got over the line by clinching the eighth 64-28 aided by a 32. Selby, incidentally, saw off Chinese player Zhang Anda 5-1 on the adjacent table.

The other quarter-finals, by the way, will see Tom Ford - conqueror of Hawkins - take on Robert Milkins, Dominic Dale up against Marco Fu and home favourite Neil Robertson lock horns with Joe Perry.