There will be no nostalgic return to the winner's circle for Steve Davis at the Welsh Open after Australia's Neil Robertson claimed a 6-3 semi-final victory over the 49-year-old at the Newport Centre this afternoon.
It meant that in his last three matches left-hander Robertson has beaten Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan and now Davis - players with 15 world titles between them.
Robertson said: 'They've won lots of times at the Crucible and countless other tournaments as well so you could say it's been a big week for me, scalping wise.'
The 25-year-old from Melbourne will face either Scotland's Stephen Maguire or Andrew Higginson, a little known qualifier from Widnes, over the best-of-17-frame final.
'It doesn't matter who I play to be honest. If I perform as well as I know I can I'm quite confident,' declared Robertson, looking for his second world-ranking triumph of the season after winning the Grand Prix in October.
Robertson's self-belief shone through against Davis even though he failed to pot a ball in the opening frame.
The turning point, although early, was the second in which Davis was presented with three obvious scoring chances but totalled only 21 points from them.
Davis said: 'I missed one really easy red and in the next few frames let him in with some loose safety shots. When you do that Neil scores a lot of points.'
'If your safety doesn't work against him there's damage done.'
In fact, Robertson fired in breaks of 42, 41, 70, 109 and 79 on the way to impressively building a 4-1 lead.
On 51 in the sixth he surprisingly missed a routine black off its spot and Davis gave himself renewed hope by salvaging it with a late run of 54.
The evergreen veteran also constructed a 91 break in frame eight but it proved too little, too late as Robertson sailed through the ninth 79-0.
Robertson said: 'I think the fact that players know that my long potting is pretty good puts them under pressure when they are trying to play safe. I played quite well and I thought my shot selection was good.'
At least, by reaching the 58th world ranking event semi-final of his career, Davis, who currently stands 13th on the provisional list, has significantly improved his chances of retaining top-16 status next season.
But when Davis is relegated from the elite - and is forced to take part in qualifying competitions - he may contemplate retirement.
He said: 'I don't like the idea of playing in the qualifiers but I probably still would. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.'
