Steve Davis, the six times World Snooker Champion, produced another
devestating performance at the Victor Chandler World Pool Championship here
in Cardiff as he dispatched European No.1 Ralf Souquet by 9 racks to 6.

Yesterday Davis shocked the pool world with perhaps the greatest upset of all time as he overturned an 8 - 2 deficit to win 9 - 8 against the reigning World Champion, Efren Reyes of the Philippines.

Starting again as the underdog Romford Slim started out strong and took the opening two racks. The Kaiser then raced into a 5 - 3 lead and the signs looked ominous as the 1996 champion began to assert himself.

Davis, though, never let go and between racks paced up and down the side of
the table like a caged animal. He won the next  four racks to go 7 - 5 and never looked back. Davis now looks forward to a last 16 match against 1998 World Champion Kunihiko Takahashi of Japan tomorrow (Friday ) night.

Davis, who believes he is now starting to look like a proper pool player spoke after the match, " I had some great support in there but they were a knowledgeable crowd and appreciated the good shots. This game can turn so quickly and as it developed into a very tactical match I was just trying to keep up with Ralf.

"It was great to beat Ralf because since I first played him in Doncaster in 1994 he has always been one of the pool players I have looked up to. His ability and knowledge of the game are second to none.

" The weakest part of my is game is my break but that is getting better and I will be working on it tomorrow afternoon.

" To coin a cliché I will be taking it one game at a time because for me this is a bit of a trip into the unknown. Tonight I'll have a few beers in the bar, wake up late, knock a few balls around in the afternoon and see what happens in the evening."

send by luke.riches