Steve Davis' pool aspirations suffered a blow this evening at Lakeside Shopping Centre as he crashed out of the World Masters at the hands of former Mosconi Cup team mate Fabio Petroni.

However, Davis so very nearly pulled off another of his famous comebacks as he dragged himself back from 6 - 2 down to level the match at six racks apiece. However a poor break in the final rack let Petroni in and the 28 year-old Roman took his chance to close out the game.

After his exploits at the World Championship in July where he knocked out three former World Champions en route to the quarter-finals, Davis stock in world pool has gone through the roof but he got off to the worst possible start against Petroni, losing the first four racks as Fabio totally dominated play.

Romford Slim won the next two but when Petroni won racks seven and eight, it looked all over for Davis. Finding his stride after a rare Petroni error, Davis started to play and as the racks fell his way an upset looked on the cards.

Commented Steve after the match, " I was too cold early on and by the time I had warmed up I had too much to do. I gave him too many chances at the beginning and, I'm afraid, at this level you can't do that. I've known Fabio a few years now and I know what he's capable of. He's got as much chance as anyone of winning this tournament ."

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