Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a professional snooker player from Larkhall in Scotland. He won the 2006 World Championship, which was his first ranking title after four previous runner-up spots. He won the 2007 China Open and reached #2 in the game's World Rankings, but has subsequently suffered from depression and experienced a loss of form dropping out of the top 16 for the 2009/2010 season.

Biography

Early career

After being UK Under-19 champion in 1992 and Scottish Amateur champion in 1993, Dott turned professional in 1994. He slowly climbed the rankings, reaching the top sixteen in 2001, where he remained until 2009. Early successes included reaching the quarter-final of the 1996 Welsh Open, qualifying for the World Championship for the first time in 1997, reaching the 1999 Scottish Open final, and reaching the semi-finals of both the Grand Prix and Scottish Open in 2000.

With his World Championship victory he was up to number 6 in the rankings for 2006/07, then his highest ever position. This is a remarkable turn-around, for at one point in the 2005/06 season he looked in danger of plummeting down the rankings.

Dott achieved his first ranking tournament victory at the 2006 World Snooker Championship; he was previously runner-up in the 1999 Regal Scottish Open, the 2001 British Open, the 2004 World Championship and the 2005 Malta Cup. He has never lost in the quarter-finals or semi-finals in the World Championship [65631].

He scored his only competitive 147 break in the 1999 British Open.

2006 World Championship victory

Dott started his campaign with an easy 10-3 victory over former champion John Parrott, before beating veteran Nigel Bond 13-9 in the second round. His quarter-final match was against Australia's Neil Robertson, and, after leading 12-8, he was pegged back to 12-12, before edging through the final and deciding frame, winning the tie 13-12. In the semi-finals he faced former two-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan. At 8-8 after the second session of four sessions, O'Sullivan failed to win a single frame in the third session and Dott dominated play to win easily 17-11.

Dott faced Peter Ebdon in the final for the £200,000 prize. He began the last session of the match leading 15-7, but Ebdon won six successive frames to reduce his deficit to two frames. Dott eventually won by 18 frames to 14, after winning some vital frames with marvellous clearances. It was the longest final ever and the latest to finish of all time. The previous record holder was the classic final frame last black ball finish 1985 final between Englishman Steve Davis and Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor, which finished at 12:19 a.m. (GMT). The Dott-Ebdon match finished half an hour later, this despite featuring three fewer frames, reflecting the slow overall pace of the match, the average frame length was so high that both afternoon sessions only had six frames, instead of the usual eight. Moreover, at just over 74 minutes, the 27th frame was the then longest (until 2009) in the history of the World Championship, even beating the 70 minute mark of the previous record set by Canadian Cliff Thorburn and Welshman Doug Mountjoy, two players of the 1980s not known for being quick either.

Post-title Career

Graeme shone in the 2006 UK Championships as well, reaching the semi finals, where he lost 7-9 to Stephen Hendry (who he has never beaten in a ranking tournament in nine attempts)[65632] after having led 7-5. Dott briefly became the provisional world number one in the rankings system after overcoming Jamie Cope by 9 frames to 5 to win the 2007 China Open, his second ranking tournament win[65633]. Prior to this, he disliked going to China, not helped by a disastrous match in 2002 [65634]. However, going into the 2007 World Championship as defending champion, he suffered a shock 10-7 defeat in the first round to Ian McCulloch in the opening match of the tournament, which dented his prospects of remaining no. 1 and newly crowned world champion John Higgins overtook him. The loss against McCulloch also maintained the "Crucible Curse", as Dott became the seventeenth consecutive first-time champion to lose his title the very next year.

2007/2008 was more of a struggle for the diminutive Scot, who described his late-2007 form as "hopeless... nowhere near to playing a good enough standard" [65635]. His season started promisingly, as he reached the semi-finals of the season-opening Shanghai Masters, where he defeated Michael Holt 5-4, tournament favourite Ding Junhui 5-1 and Stephen Lee 5-4 before losing his semi-final against Ryan Day 2-6, to close the gap on World #1 John Higgins, who went out in the second round; however, Dott then won no further matches that season; a run of 12 consecutive defeats, including all 5 group games in the Grand Prix, started from October 2007 onwards. In the UK Championship he was eliminated in the first round, 7-9, by unseeded Dave Harold, while in the Masters he lost 5-6 to eventual runner-up Stephen Lee for the third successive year [65636]. Another first-round elimination followed in the Malta Cup, this time to Mark Williams. In the Welsh Open he lost his opening match once again, 4-5 to Michael Judge. In frame 7, when leading 4-2, he missed the pack completely with his break-off after miscuing, and also failed to hit the bunch on his next shot after Judge capitlised on the break-off error by trapping him in a snooker on the baulk cushion. Dott never recovered from this mistake and a newly-inspired Judge won three frames in a row to seal an unlikely victory. Dott announced that he could miss out on the 2008 World Championship, due to personal reasons, and according to his manager he had been suffering from depression.. However, Dott did eventually participate in the tournament, but was eliminated in the first round yet again for the second year in a row, losing 7-10 to Joe Perry[65637], subsequently sliding to #13 in the new world rankings, and he finished the season outside the top 32 on the one-year rankings.

Things did not improve in the early part of 2008/09, when a broken left arm sustained while playing football forced him to pull out of the Shanghai Masters[65638] and Grand Prix[65639]

Dott did win the Berlin leg of the 2008 World Series of Snooker[65640], but withdrew from the Moscow event two days before it began, due to his wife preparing to give birth[65641]. He reached the second round of the 2009 World Snooker Championship for the first time since winning the title in 2006, but lost to Mark Selby 13-10, dropping him out of the top 16.

Personal life

Dott married Elaine Lambie in 2003, and the couple celebrated the birth of their son, Lewis, in 2004. Elaine is the daughter of Dott's manager, Alex Lambie, who died on 16 December 2006 after a long battle with kidney cancer. Alex managed Graeme since he was 12 years old. Weeks after this, his wife suffered a miscarriage [65642]. Dott has suffered from depression since these two events. Graeme's depression has led to a diminished appetite.

He supports Rangers and paraded his World Championship trophy at Ibrox, their home ground, during half-time of Rangers' final league match against Hearts on 7 May 2006. His favourite films are The Godfather and Goodfellas [65643], he has played online poker, and is teetotal. [65644]

Tournament wins

Ranking wins

• World Snooker Championship - 2006
• China Open - 2007

Non-ranking wins

• World Series of Snooker - Tournament in Berlin - 2008

References

1. Graeme Dott Looks For Success In Malta
2. Small talk: Graeme Dott | Breaking news | Guardian Unlimited Sport

External links

• "Small talk: Graeme Dott" Trivia interview by The Guardian, 14 February 2003
• Global Snooker Centre profile
• Graeme Dott caricature