Stevens lost the last five frames as he suffered a 13-8 defeat at the hands of Ken Doherty and Day was beaten 13-10 by Ronnie O'Sullivan, the favourite.

Both had begun the final nine frames of their second round matches with high hopes of progressing even further, but while Stevens was outplayed by the resurgent Doherty, fate hit Day below the belt as he was about to take a 10-8 lead.

He had won five of the eight frames played earlier in the day to lead 9-7, enough to suggest a shock was on the cards, and while O'Sullivan took frame 17, Day, 14 points ahead in frame 18, was about to clear up and forge two clear again when he went steeple chasing on the pink.

A straight and simple pink was squandered as the Welshman sent the cue ball over the top of it and into the back right-hand pocket, a mistake compounded by the fact that O'Sullivan was left with a none too difficult clearance to tie the score.

This he did with a break of 30 and from that moment, Day's challenge to topple the favourite was over. O'Sullivan recorded breaks of 68, 64 and 51 to lead 11-9 and while an untidy 22nd frame fell to Day, a 13-10 defeat sealed victory for the world No 1 thanks to a closing break of 75.

"It was a tough game which could have gone either way," said O'Sullivan. "Strange things happen at the Crucible and they did again in the match. But Ryan couldn't finish me off in an intimidating atmosphere which I think got the better of him in the end.

"The world championship can play tricks with your mind and I'm lucky to get through to a quarter-final against Mark Williams and it's nice to see him playing well again," said O'Sullivan.

Doherty was understandably bullish as he moved ominously closer to a second world title.

The world No 12 and winner of the Malta Cup two months ago won all five frames on Monday after an 8-8 overnight scoreline, the last of those frames resolved when Doherty completely missed the black. But not even this could throw Doherty out of his stride. "I didn't sleep at all well thinking about it," he admitted. "Though winning the first frame today settled me down nicely.

"I couldn't believe the miss. It was a cardinal sin and probably worse than when I missed the final black for a 147 at the Wembley Masters.

"A lot of people probably wrote me off after that, but winning the next frame erased the nightmare of it. If I can keep playing like this, I can beat anyone," added Doherty, who faces Marco Fu for a place in the semi-finals.

Stevens, twice runner up, said: "I didn't do much wrong at all but two or three frames I lost changed it. I was playing catch-up afterwards and you can't do that against Ken, who is playing well enough now to win it."

The quarter-finals are: Shaun Murphy v Peter Ebdon; Ken Doherty v Marco Fu; Graeme Dott v Neil Robertson; Ronnie O'Sullivan v Mark Williams. 

John Dee

The Nation

Sheffield