Davis denied in semis again

The St Leonards cueman narrowly missed out on a first ever full ranking event final as he was beaten 6-4 by Barry Hawkins in the Australian Goldfields Open.

In a match between two good friends, world number 23 Hawkins took the opening frame 124-8 aided by a break of 55 in Bendigo, Victoria.

Davis hit back to win the second 60-9 and looked like bagging the third as well when he forged ahead with a 50 only for Hawkins to sneak it 63-61 with a 55 clearance.

A 91 clearance gave Hawkins, the 2012 Snooker Shoot-Out winner from Dartford, the next 91-26 for a 3-1 lead at the interval.

World number 18 Davis took frame five 98-4 with a run of 98 and levelled at 3-3 by winning frame six 93-25 thanks to a 93.

He was also ahead in frame seven before Hawkins came back to clinch it 74-33, although Davis did capture frame eight 66-12 courtesy of a 66.

A 67 helped Hawkins clinch frame nine 74-37, however, and he set up a final against Peter Ebdon tomorrow via a 74 as Davis was frozen out in frame 10.

Davis will finally return home comforted by having also reached the Wuxi Classic semi-finals two weeks ago and won the Six Red World Championship last week.

The 39-year-old knocked out Jack Lisowski, 2010 World Champion Neil Robertson and Martin Gould to qualify for his latest semi-final.