Welsh Open snooker exit for Cahill

The 20-year-old had come through his opening clash with Xiao Guodong at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, but found world number 25 Mark Davis a step too far, going down 4-1.

Davis opened up with a majestic 134 break, and although Cahill had chances in every frame after that, he could only clinch one.

Monday’s win was Cahill’s first since October but he was frustrated at losing to Davis,who also knocked him out of the 2014 UK Championship in which he made his name by defeating Ding Junhui.

Cahill said: “It’s just annoying that it is Mark Davis beating me again. I’m definitely due a win against him but there are definitely plenty of positives I can take.

There’s not much wrong with my game, although I do need to be scoring a bit more heavily.

The world number 111 was left to lament missed opportunities. “ I’ve missed a couple of balls to let Mark in that I probably shouldn’t miss. I had a chance to narrow the gap to 3-2 but got a bit unlucky when I went in-off. That cost me the match.”