Jamie Burnett battles to his first ever ranking semi-final

The in-form Davis roared into a 3-0 lead with breaks of 102, 84 - kick-started by a superb long red - and 83. By that point, Burnett had scored just a solitary point but he crucially took a scrappy fourth frame to narrow the deficit ahead of the mid-session interval.

Davis came from behind to win frame five on the black but Burnett rallied, taking the sixth with a run of 65 to trail 4-2.

He cut the gap to one and a break of 90 levelled the match. A tense decider went down to the wire, Burnett prevailing after a battle on the final pink to set up a last-four clash with Jamie Cope.

The 'Stoke Shotgun' also overcame a sluggish start to avenge his 2007 China Open final defeat to Graeme Dott. The Scot rattled off the first frame in quick time but Cope took the second with breaks of 24 - ended when he inadvertently potted the blue - 31 and 39.

A break of 53 set up the third for Dott, who clinched it with a fine long red, but Cope levelled at 2-2 ahead of the mid-session interval.

He had a 147 chance in the first frame back but missed a difficult long 12th red, a tally of 88 nevertheless enough to seal the frame.

And he never looked back, adding the sixth and, after Dott went close with a double and both players missed yellows, clearing the colours to win frame seven and complete a run of four successive frames and a 5-2 win.

World number four Ali Carter came from 4-1 down to beat Matthew Stevens 5-4, while Mark Selby cruised to a 5-1 win over Mark King on the other table.