By Julian Shea BBC Sport at The Crucible

Hamilton suffered some nervous moments, but held on to win

Anthony Hamilton survived a late rally by Steve Davis to beat the six-time world champion 10-7 in the first round.

Davis ended the first day with two century breaks and nearly won his third frame in a row when play restarted, losing a 43-minute frame on the pink.

Spurred on by this, an 88 break gave Hamilton the next and he took the two after that to lie a frame from victory.

Davis responded by winning three in a row but hopes of a famous revival ended as Hamilton finally sealed the win.

Davis cursed his luck, saying the first frame of the second day proved to be the turning point.

"I left him an easy chance on the pink and it all went a bit strange, like the wheel fell off. Had I won that frame -well, you don't know," he said.

"I thought I played alright but that's what can conspire on a snooker table.

"I kept playing as fluently as possible but part of the equation is how well he played. Anthony's a great player."

Hamilton admitted his relief at not allowing Davis to continue his comeback

"My nerves weren't the best but that's Sheffield for you," he said.

"If you get a chance, you just have to concentrate on 10 minutes of snooker. If it had gone to 9-8, I'd have been twitching like a nutter.

"I won the tactical battle, which is unheard of. I'd played Steve twice before and was 10-0 down, so when I won the first frame, I was pretty chuffed."

First-round result (best of 19 frames):
S Davis (Eng) 7-10 A Hamilton (Eng)
51-65, 87-0 (63), 11-72 (63), 71-59, 7-64, 32-62, 14-81 (55), 127-0 (127), 120-0 (119), 54-62, 9-148 (88), 8-71, 0-112, 62-31, 75-0 (56), 96-0 (69), 0-69 (61)