DOTT RETAINS NARROW ADVANTAGE
By PA Sport Staff
Graeme Dott withstood a fierce Ken Doherty fightback to stay on course for his
first Embassy World Championship quarter-final in Sheffield.
Dott resumes on Monday with a 9-7 advantage over Doherty in their best-of-25
second-round match.
But the Scot's chances of upsetting the 1997 world title-winner appeared to
have gone as he lost five frames in a row.
However, the world number 12 from Glasgow recovered his composure to take the
final two frames of the night.
He did so with the help of an outrageous fluke in frame 16 that took him to a
closing break of 80.
Dott had reached 37 when he fortuitously potted a red, otherwise Doherty would
have been favourite to draw level again.
Robert Milkins claimed Dott had an outrageous amount of good fortune in their
first round match - and lady lucky certainly continued to smile on the
25-year-old.
Dott was trounced 13-2 at the same stage of last year's championship by John
Higgins but the 2001 British Open runner-up was giving a far better account of
himself this time.
He began the night with a 6-2 lead and after 20 minutes' play had stretched
his advantage to 7-2.
It was now crisis point for the 33-year-old Dubliner, who had enjoyed the
slimmest of 10-9 wins against Shaun Murphy in the opening round.
Doherty, runner-up to Mark Williams in this season's UK Championship final,
rose to the challenge, though it was hardly vintage stuff.
His highest break of the match so far is a very modest 68 and that helped him
close the contest to 7-6.
Dott, who lost frame 12 on the black, had been trapped in a deadly snooker
behind the yellow. After deliberating for three minutes 38 seconds the Scot
lashed out and Doherty profited from the resulting miss.
A scrappy 14th frame followed but at least the Irishman was back on terms.
Frame 15 was even more disjointed and eventually after 31 minutes Dott took it
72-50. His 80 break made it 9-7 and four more frames will take him through to a
quarter-final against countryman Higgins.
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