Veteran Steve Davis ended Paul Hunter's hopes of defending his Masters title with a 6-5 victory at Wembley. Davis, the six-times world champion, had the better of the play during a tense and scrappy second-round tie.
He opened with breaks of 70 and 81 to take a 2-0 lead before Hunter hit back in the third, fifth and sixth frames.
Davis made it 5-4 in his favour after a tight seventh, Hunter then drew level with a 54 break, before Davis settled matters with a 58 in the decider.
"That is certainly the best I have played for a while," Davis said.
"I got off to a good start, made a couple of good breaks and suddenly everything I had been doing in practice started to come off on the match table."
Meanwhile Graeme Dott recorded an impressive 6-4 victory over UK Championship winner Stephen Maguire in their first round encounter.
 |  It does not get much better than playing Ronnie at Wembley |
World Championship finalist Dott, who recently avenged that defeat with a 5-0 win over Ronnie O'Sullivan in Malta, took the first frame in the all-Glasgow clash.
Maguire won the next two, compiling a 101, the only century break of the match, before Dott took three in a row.
After Maguire levelled Dott conceded only 10 points in taking the next two and sealing his first win at Wembley in four attempts.
Dott now has another chance against O'Sullivan for a place in the quarter-finals.
"It does not get much better than playing Ronnie at Wembley," he said.
"But I do not think what happened in Malta will have any bearing on our game
on Tuesday."
MMIX
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