World Championship Day 3

Image: World Snooker

Mark Davis caused a Crucible upset on Monday afternoon as he dispatched four-times World Champion John Higgins 10-6. The Hastings man, who had already beaten Higgins 6-5 at the UK Championship in December, had a 6-3 overnight lead but lost the first frame of the second session as Higgins hit a 92 break. A run of 69 saw The Scot pull another back but Davis went within a frame of victory with runs of 81 and 47. Higgins won the next but it was too little too late as Davis knocked in a break of 87 to seal the match.

Mark King was another qualifier to put out a top seed as he came back from 8-6 down to beat Mark Allen 10-8. The Braintree man started well and took the first two closely-contested frames, including a top break of 39. Allen then won four of the next five to go 4-3 up but King finished the first session well to lead 5-4 with breaks of 74 and 50. Allen started well in the evening session, winning the first three frames whilst the next two were shared as Allen went 8-6 ahead. But King fought back and won the next three with runs of 74, 89 and 81 and he also won the 16^th to complete the upset.

Graeme Dott may have needed three sessions to do it, but he knocked out 2002 World Champion Peter Ebdon 10-6. Dott was 6-2 up overnight but Ebdon managed to win all four frames before the interval of the second session to haul himself back into the match as 6-6. Dott won the next two but the match was taken off to allow the afternoon session to start. The players returned at 10:45 when a table became available and The Scott took two more to seal progress to the last 16.

There was another impressive performance for another Crucible debutant as Dechawat Poomjaeng played well in his first session against Stephen Maguire, to lead 5-3. The world number 70 looked tense as he stepped out into the Crucible for the first time but his nerves were soon quelled as he made breaks of 72 and 59 to win the first two frames. Maguire responded with a 69 break in frame three but Poomjaeng won the next two, with a top run of 50 in the fifth, to go 4-1 up. A miss-cue on the pink by Poomjaeng in the next, allowed Maguire to make it 4-2 but the Thai won a lengthy 50-minute seventh frame to go 5-2 ahead. Maguire managed to win the last frame of the session, with a top run of 36, to keep him within touching distance of the 2010 IBSF World Champion.

Ben Woollaston also impressed during his first visit to the Crucible and leads Ali Carter 5-4. He led 3-1 at the interval and managed two in two of the next five to secure the overnight lead.