Davis withdraws from Bahrain

Snooker : Six-time world champion Steve Davis has withdrawn from the Bahrain Snooker Championship at the 11th hour citing medical…

Snooker: Six-time world champion Steve Davis has withdrawn from the Bahrain Snooker Championship at the 11th hour citing medical reasons for his no show in the Middle East.

The 51-year-old has been suffering from an ear infection and his withdrawal means Welshman Dominic Dale has been handed a bye into the quarter-finals in the Gulf.

Dale beat Hong Kong's Marco Fu in the opening round yesterday evening, before admitting: "We were both very nervous because we were expecting Steve to withdraw. We were basically expecting it to be a match for a place in the quarter-finals."

Davis is the fifth player to pull out of the new event with Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, Mark Selby and Dig Junhui also not in attendance.

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One of the tournament favourites, Ryan Day, is through to the last 16 after a comprehensive 5-2 win against Stoke's Dave Harold.

Day, a finalist at the recent Grand Prix in Glasgow, will now meet his compatriot and practice partner Matthew Stevens after he downed Stuart Bingham 5-0.

Peter Ebdon crashed out to Robert Milkins 5-3 — he is the fourth former world champion to exit the competition so far — but there was an entertaining win for seven-time Crucible winner Stephen Hendry.

He notched two consecutive centuries, a 139 and 111, as he downed Ricky Walden
5-3.

Neil Robertson beat Marcus Campbell 5-4 this afternoon while Joe Perry beat Rod Lawler 5-1 tonight.