SIX-TIME WORLD snooker champion Steve Davis has announced his retirement from the sport.

The 58-year-old Englishman lost to Fergal O’Brien in the first round of qualifying for this year’s World Championship and later decided that would be his final competitive match.

“That was my last match as a professional,” Davis told the BBC. “So I’m calling it a day.

“I phoned up Barry (Hearn, his long-time manager) and told him it was on my mind to enter the World Championship and make that the last. I said, ‘Barry, I think it’s time to retire from professional snooker’.

“And he said, ‘Steve, you retired 10 years ago we just didn’t have the heart to tell you’,” added Davis, who won the last of his world titles in 1989.

Sunday saw Davis take a bow in front of spectators at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, northern England, the venue for all his world title successes and where this year’s edition is ongoing, with the World Championship trophy.

- © AFP, 2016

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