Dott’s Crucible hopes dashed but Scot happy with progress

Graeme Dott’s disappointing campaign ended in the second round of the Betfred world championship yesterday but the Scot believes there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.

The Larkhall potter failed to make the last eight of a ranking event in a single season for the first time since 2003 after falling in the second round to Barry Hawkins at the Crucible.

Trailing 10-6 in the best-of-25 match, Dott was blown away by Hawkins on the final morning – losing the final three frames in under an hour.

But Dott, the 2006 champion, left Sheffield in good spirits having suffered one of the worst seasons of his career and he is now determined to put things right with new coach Chris Henry after initial signs of progress.

“I am glad this season has finished, it has been a bit of a disaster apart from the world championship,” he said. “It has not exactly ended well, I have lost in the last 16, but it is better than the rest of the season.

“I am looking forward to working with Chris and trying to be better prepared.

“I take a lot of positives from the way I played against Ali Carter in the first round. It is a shame I could not reproduce that against Barry but you get different types of players and he is ideal for the Crucible. I have not been working with Chris for long so my game was in bits at the start of the year. I had a terrible season but I have started to play better.”

Hawkins, meanwhile, set up a last-eight tie against Scot Stephen Maguire.

Defending champion Mark Selby remains on course for his third world championship title after booking a quarter-final place with a 13-6 win against Xiao Guodong.

The pre-tournament favourite, who led 10-6 overnight, began yesterday’s session in blistering style, winning three successive frames to quickly dispose of his Chinese opponent.

Selby, Crucible winner in 2014 and 2016, produced a century (101) in the opening frame of the session – his only one in the match – and then cleared up with a break of 73 to take the second after Xiao twice let him back in.

World number 44 Xiao had given himself hope in the match by winning the final two frames on Sunday but he failed to recapture that form as Selby sealed a comfortable passage into the next round with a break of 60.

Selby will next face Marco Fu, who beat Neil Robertson 13-11 last night.

Watch the snooker world championship live on Eurosport and Eurosport Player, with Colin Murray and analysis from Jimmy White and Neal Foulds

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