Davis: Win over O'Sullivan was my finest

Mark Davis described his semi-final victory over the great Ronnie O'Sullivan at the English Open as his finest ever.
Mark Davis weighs up his options during the English Open final at K2 Crawley. Picture courtesy World SnookerMark Davis weighs up his options during the English Open final at K2 Crawley. Picture courtesy World Snooker
Mark Davis weighs up his options during the English Open final at K2 Crawley. Picture courtesy World Snooker

The St Leonards cueman saw off five-time world champion O’Sullivan 6-1 at K2 Crawley on Saturday night to reach his maiden World Snooker full ranking event final.

He was then edged out 9-7 by Stuart Bingham in the following day’s final.

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Davis told Observer Sport: “I think it’s probably my best match ever to be honest. When I played (Mark) Selby in the first round of the Masters (in January 2014) that was an unbelievable atmosphere, but I lost that 6-5.

“We all know he (O’Sullivan) didn’t play his best, but at the same time he only missed two or three balls early on and I punished him. And I kept the pressure on him. That was an amazing night, packed house, great atmosphere.”

See also: * English Open runner-up left with mixed emotions* St Leonards star edged out in epic English Open final* Brilliant Davis stuns O’Sullivan to reach English Open final* St Leonards star beats four-time world champ in English OpenO’Sullivan was one of six players Davis beat en route to the final and half of them were in the top 16 of the world rankings. The other two were 14th-ranked Ryan Day and four-time world champion John Higgins.

“I played some really good players,” continued Davis. “To play John, Ryan the way he’s played the last couple of years, Ronnie and Stuart, that’s a tough set of fixtures.

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“I’m working with a new coach this year and he’s come out with some new stuff which has helped me as well. Maybe the stuff I’ve been doing with him has been kicking in now. This game is a lot in the mind.”

Davis has now won 18 of his 24 matches so far this season and has beaten five of the world’s top 16.

“I’ve won a lot of matches and I’ve played better than last season for sure,” he added. “I still haven’t been where I wanted to be. Even though I’ve won all my qualifiers, some of them haven’t been great, but there’s been some really good ones as well.

“If it all clicks into gear, there’s no reason why not and that’s pretty much what happened.”