Snooker: Davis into last four

Steve Davis described the British Open as "an intrusion" before the World Championship but now finds himself in the semi-finals of the event.

Davis's preparations for Sheffield have been put on hold for at least another 24 hours after defeating the Scotsman Alan McManus 5-2 in the first quarter-final at Plymouth yesterday.

Today he will come face to face with his old adversary, Stephen Hendry, who reeled off three successive frames to beat Dave Harold 5-3.

"What I said was that it is hard to get motivated in the early rounds but now I feel very much involved in the event.

"All eyes were on the World Championship last weekend with the draw for the first round. But now the draw is out of the way I'm focused on this event and rising to the challenge."

Davis, the world No 10, recovered from 2-0 down to beat the out of touch Glaswegian with a five-frame unanswered burst. "I can consider myself fortunate to win 5-2 because it's a ridiculous scoreline for the way the first half of the match went," explained the six times former world champion. Alan could easily have been 3-1 up and I'm not sure it's a match he'll be very pleased with."