Davis crashes out to Swail

Veteran Steve Davis suffered his second successive defeat of the season when he was beaten 5-3 by Joe Swail in the second round of the British Open in Brighton.

The 46-year-old, back in the elite top 16 after a three-year gap, lost 5-4 to Shaun Murphy in last month’s LG Cup.

And Davis failed to find top form again as Swail, the Northern Ireland number one, clinched a place in the last 16.

“If you don’t play well enough, you’re out and I made too many mistakes,” Davis said.

“Joe is a very good player. He’s not back to tournament winning form but it was a good performance.

“It’s disappointing to lose again but there’s always another tournament around the corner.”

Davis, ranked 11th this season, made a break of 72 in the second frame but trailed 3-1 at the interval, losing the fourth after a 48-minute struggle.

He pieced together a run of 82 to reduce his arrears to 3-2 and one of 73 in the seventh to trail 4-3 but Swail secured the eighth to clinch his last 16 place.

Swail, twice an Embassy World Championship semi-finalist, dropped out of the top 16 last season after a poor run of results.

“It’s a very good win,” he said. “I’m still a bit low in confidence because I’ve been on a losing run for a couple of years but a few more wins like this should give me a boost.”