Dott through to Crucible semi-finals (original) (raw)
Updated / Thursday, 14 Jun 2007 16:24
Graeme Dott thwarted a magnificent fightback from Australia's Neil Robertson to reach the semi-finals for the second time in three years at the 888.com World Championship in Sheffield.
The Scot let slip leads of 10-5 and 12-8 as Robertson forced a deciding frame before going through 13-12 to book a possible clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan, his conqueror in the 2004 final.
Robertson, nicknamed the 'Melbourne Machine', kept alive his hopes with breaks of 106 and 103, the latter after Dott had missed a red along the top cushion which would have all but clinched the win.
In the decider, the 28-year-old Glaswegian went 50 points ahead with a 35 break initiated by a superb plant when tight on the side cushion, but broke down to let his opponent back in.
The pivotal moment came on the yellow.
After Dott had fouled by missing the ball, Robertson chose not to put him in again and instead played a poor safety shot that left the yellow on.
Dott cleared to the frame-ball brown, punching the air and yelling "come on" as he did so, and it was all over when Robertson, trying to lay a snooker on the pink, only succeeded in potting the ball.
"It's never a smart thing to punch the air when you haven't actually won," admitted the 14th seed.
He added: "It was just a release - I couldn't not do it. I thought the whole match had gone perfectly for me. I played well in the first session and the second half of the second but then Neil played fantastically well today.
"I couldn't believe he didn't put me back in on the yellow because it was a hard safety shot and I wasn't looking forward to having to play it again. I couldn't understand Neil's reasoning for it."
Robertson explained why he had made that decision and also claimed the result had not been a fair reflection of the match.
"At first I didn't think Graeme could hit the yellow but when I realised he could, I thought he could put me in a lot of trouble," said the 24-year-old.
He added: "As it was, I was only a couple of millimetres from putting him in big trouble. I'm very disappointed to lose. I thought I was by far the better player. He nicked six or seven frames at least.
"At 8-4 down someone told me my body language wasn't very good and that I was huffing and puffing around the table. I fell into Graeme's way of playing by concentrating on safety.
"Today I played the way I wanted to play and completely outplayed him. I knew I could get on a roll and steamroller him. It's a shame I only realised that towards the end instead of early on."
On the other table, defending champion Shaun Murphy fought back into his quarter-final against Peter Ebdon. Murphy, who lost the first seven frames of the match, rediscovered his trademark long potting to make breaks of 113, 83 twice and 77 to trail 10-6 heading into Wednesday night's conclusion.