Snooker.

ROCKET'S TITLE HOPES IN TATTERS

29 Apr 2006 13:22:00

In one of the most astonishing sessions in Crucible history, Graeme Dott won all eight frames to leave himself on the brink of the final of the 888.com World Snooker Championship.

The form Ronnie O’Sullivan showed in beating Mark Williams in the quarter-finals has deserted him and he looks certain to be heading down the M1 back to Chigwell tonight. He trails 16-8 and is just one frame away from defeat.

Problems with his cue tip - he has tried around 20 different tips over the past fortnight - have contributed to his struggle as his dreams of a third world title have slipped away.

The 30-year-old, who will lose his world No 1 ranking to Stephen Hendry unless he makes an unlikely comeback against Dott tonight, missed a host of simple pots in this morning’s session.

Dott, by contrast, played text-book match snooker and fully capitalised as his opponent’s frustration mounted.

The Pocket Dynamo took the first frame today with a superb break of 92 to go 9-8 up. The next was a fragmented affair lasting over 40 minutes and when Dott won it on the colours, O’Sullivan’s resistance began to crumble.

The Glaswegian reeled off the next three frames with runs of 86, 49 and 47 to lead 13-8.

O’Sullivan might have snatched a life-line in frame 22 when he fluked the last red, but he jawed a tough brown to a centre pocket and Dott potted yellow and green to win it.

Contributions of 40 and 53 - the latter started by an outrageous fluke - gave him the last two and extended his run of consecutive frames to nine.

It’s the third time in O’Sullivan’s career that he has lost all eight frames in a session at the Crucible - he was white-washed by John Parrott in 1994 and John Higgins in 1998.

World No 13 Dott now seems sure to reach his second world final - and to gain revenge on O’Sullivan for his 18-8 defeat in 2004. The match resumes at 7pm.