Snooker: Sweet moment for Hamilton

Anthony Hamilton, the world No 14, reached the final eight of a ranking tournament for the first time yesterday with a 5-2 victory over Jason Ferguson in the German Open at Bingen.

"It was long overdue but hopefully now I can get on with the rest of my career," the Nottingham player said. "Had I lost today, I would have probably been called the biggest twitcher in history."

Ferguson lost the opening four frames before launching a comeback. He made breaks of 38 and 72 to reduce Hamilton's lead to just 4-2. In the next frame he appeared to have done the hard work by reaching the colours, potting yellow and green, but he carelessly missed a brown off its spot.

Hamilton knocked in the brown but left himself an awkward shot on the blue. He took careful aim using the rest, potted the ball and the pink was a formality to take the frame 61-43 and the match.

"Had it gone 4-3, I don't think you could have called it," Hamilton said. "Jason started to play well after the interval and got his arm going. I began to get tense and I didn't feel Jason was going to miss in that last frame. Thankfully for me, he just took his eye off the ball."

Victory was doubly sweet for Hamilton after losing 9-8 to Stephen Hendry in the last 16 of the UK Championship when he had been 8-5 in front. Hamilton's reward is a match with John Higgins on Friday for a place in the semi- finals.