STEVE DAVIS took a huge step towards safeguarding his professional status by reaching the third round of the Gdynia Open in Poland today.
Snooker legend Davis entered the event in 60th place in the prize money ranking list, with the top 64 at the end of the season guaranteed tour places for the 2014/15 campaign.
However, there are also eight places available to players from the Players Tour Championship outside the top 64 and Davis currently stands seventh on this list.
He began the day with a 4-1 defeat of Polish amateur Wojciech Przylucki and then beat Mike Dunn – himself battling to stay on the tour – 4-2.
The six times world champion was playing Judd Trump in the last 32 this evening.
For full analysis of the battle for tour survival, Matt from ProSnookerBlog is updating this page throughout the event.
Photographs by Monique Limbos.