Davis pockets place in top events

The St Leonards cueman is among the seeded players for next month’s UK Championship and has also earned a spot in the prestigious Masters tournament during January.

He told Observer Sport: “I’m a bit fortunate to be honest the way it’s panned out, but you’ve got to take it. I’ve earned it because I’ve been there or thereabouts for the last three years.”

Davis was 17th in the world rankings at the latest ‘cut-off point’ earlier this month. Although only the top 16 automatically qualify for full ranking events, ninth-ranked Stephen Lee is serving a suspension and 20th-ranked Ronnie Sullivan, who would be seeded two for every event by virtue of being world champion, has withdrawn from all tournaments for the rest of the season.

The 40-year-old Davis has only previously been seeded for one full ranking event. That was back in July when several of the game’s top players opted not to contest the Australian Goldfields Open.

He has also only taken part in The Masters - a non-ranking event involving just the game’s top 16 players - once before. That was in 2003 when he won the now defunct Benson & Hedges Championship to qualify.

Davis admitted he thought he had missed out after losing to Marcu Fu in round two of the International Championship 16 days ago having knocked out Mark Williams in round one.

He has been knocking on the door of the top 16 for some time now. Davis has reached the semi-finals of the Wuxi Classic and Australian Goldfields Open this season, and won the Six Reds World Championship.