Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional
snooker
Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...
player and snooker coach from
Larkhall
Larkhall ( sco, Larkhauch, gd, Taigh na h-Uiseig) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, around southeast of Glasgow. It is twinned with Seclin in northern France.
Larkhall sits on high ground between the River Clyde to the East and the ...
. He turned professional in 1994 and first entered the top 16 in 2001. He has won two ranking titles, the
2006 World Snooker Championship and the
2007 China Open, and was runner-up in the World Championships of
2004 and
2010. He reached number 2 in the world rankings in 2007, but a subsequent episode of clinical depression seriously affected his form, causing him to drop to number 28 for the
2009–10 season. He then recovered his form, regained his top-16 ranking, and reached a third World Championship final. In 2011, he published his autobiography, ''Frame of Mind: The Autobiography of the World Snooker Champion.''
Career
Early career
After winning the UK Under-19 Championship in 1992 and Scottish Amateur Championship in 1993, Dott turned professional in 1994. He slowly climbed the
rankings
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second.
In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...
, reaching the top sixteen in
2001, where he remained until 2009. Early successes included reaching the quarter-final of the 1996 Welsh Open and qualifying for the World Championship for the first time in
1997. Dott was a runner-up in the
1999 Scottish Open, the
2001 British Open, the
2004 World Championship and the
2005 Malta Cup. He scored his first competitive
147 break
A maximum break (also known as a maximum, a 147, or orally, a one-four-seven) is the highest possible in a single of snooker. A player compiles a maximum break by potting all 15 with 15 for 120 points, followed by all six for a further 2 ...
in the 1999 British Open.
2006 World Championship victory
Dott started his campaign with an easy 10–3 victory over former champion
John Parrott
John Stephen Parrott, (born 11 May 1964) is an English former professional snooker player and television personality. He was a familiar face on the professional snooker circuit during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, and remained withi ...
, before beating veteran
Nigel Bond
Nigel Bond (born 15 November 1965) is an English former professional snooker player.
Bond competed on the main tour from 1989 to 2022, and was ranked within the world's top 16 players between 1992 and 1999, peaking at 5th for the 1996–97 s ...
13–9 in the second round. In his quarter-final match against Australia's
Neil Robertson
Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...
, Dott took a 12–8 lead, before being pegged back to 12–12, and then edging through the deciding frame to win 13–12. In the semi-finals, he faced then two-time champion
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...
in a rematch of their
2004 Championship final. They finished the second session tied 8–8, but Dott swept O'Sullivan in the third session en route to a 17–11 victory.
Dott faced
Peter Ebdon
Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English former snooker player. The winner of the 2002 World Snooker Championship, Ebdon won nine world ranking events, placing twelfth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In addit ...
in the final for the £200,000 prize. He began the last session leading 15–7, but Ebdon won six successive frames to reduce the deficit to two. Dott eventually won 18–14, after winning some vital frames with impressive clearances.
It stands as the longest final ever, and was, at the time, the latest to finish (
John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...
's victory over
Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the ...
the following year now holds the record). The previous record holder had been the classic final frame black ball finish
1985 final between
Englishman
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...
Steve Davis
Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...
and
Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor
Dennis Taylor (born 19 January 1949) is a Northern Irish retired professional snooker player and current commentator. He is best known for winning the 1985 World Snooker Championship, where he defeated the defending champion Steve Davis in a ...
, which ended at 12:19 a.m. (
GMT
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...
). The Dott–Ebdon match finished half an hour later, despite featuring three fewer frames, reflecting the slow overall pace of the match, so slow that both afternoon sessions only had six frames, rather than the usual eight. Moreover, at over 74 minutes, the 27th frame was the then longest in the history of the World Championship, beating the previous record of 70 minutes set by
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
Cliff Thorburn
Clifford Charles Devlin Thorburn (born 16 January 1948) is a Canadian retired professional snooker player. Nicknamed "The Grinder" because of his slow, determined style of play, he won the World Snooker Championship in 1980, defeating Alex Hi ...
and
Welshman Doug Mountjoy
Doug Mountjoy (8 June 1942 – 14 February 2021) was a Welsh snooker player from Tir-y-Berth, Gelligaer, Glamorgan, Wales. He was a member of the professional snooker circuit from the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, and remained within the ...
, a record that would stand until 2009.
The victory over Ebdon took Dott's ranking up to number 6 for the
2006/2007 season, a career high at the time.
Post-title career
Dott shone in the
2006 UK Championship as well, reaching the semi-finals, where he lost 7–9 to
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
(a player who Dott never managed to beat in a ranking tournament) after an earlier 7–5 lead. He briefly became the provisional world number one in the rankings system after overcoming
Jamie Cope
Jamie Cope (born 12 September 1985) is an English former professional snooker player.
A finalist in two ranking tournaments, the 2006 Grand Prix and the 2007 China Open, Cope also reached the semi-finals of the 2011 Masters. He reached his h ...
9–5 to win the
2007 China Open, his second ranking tournament win. Prior to this, he disliked going to China, not helped by a disastrous match in 2002. However, going into the
2007 World Championship as defending champion, he suffered a shock 7–10 defeat in the first round to
Ian McCulloch in the opening match of the tournament, which dented his prospects of remaining world number 1. Newly crowned world champion
John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...
overtook him. The loss against McCulloch also maintained the "
Crucible curse
The "Crucible curse" (also known as "The curse of the Crucible" or sometimes the "Crucible jinx") is a quip in professional snooker referring to the fact that every first-time world champion has failed to retain the title the following year. The ...
", as Dott became the seventeenth consecutive first-time champion to lose his title the very next year.
The
2007–08 season was more of a struggle for Dott, who described his late-2007 form as "hopeless... nowhere near to playing a good enough standard". His season started promisingly, as he reached the semi-finals of the season-opening
2007 Shanghai Masters, where he defeated
Michael Holt 5–4, tournament favourite
Ding Junhui
Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (200 ...
5–1, and
Stephen Lee 5–4, before losing his semi-final against
Ryan Day 2–6, to close the gap on world number 1
John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...
, who went out in the second round; however, Dott then won no further matches that season; a run of twelve consecutive defeats, including all five group matches in the
2007 Grand Prix, started from October 2007 onwards. In the
2007 UK Championship he was eliminated in the first round, 7–9, by unseeded
Dave Harold
David Harold (born 9 December 1966) is an English former professional snooker player from Stoke-on-Trent. He was known by the nicknames of "the Hard Man" and "the Stoke Potter" (conflating his home city's pottery industry and his profession of ...
, while in the
Masters he lost 5–6 to eventual runner-up
Stephen Lee for the third successive year. Another first-round elimination followed in the
2008 Malta Cup, this time to
Mark Williams. In the
2008 Welsh Open he lost his opening match against
Michael Judge
Michael Judge (born 12 January 1975 in Dublin) is a professional snooker player from the Republic of Ireland. His best performance in a ranking event came in the 2004 Grand Prix, where he reached the semi-finals, and he reached his highest rank ...
4–5. 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 being snookered. Dott announced that he might miss the
2008 World Championship due to personal reasons, and his manager said he had been suffering from depression. However, he did eventually participate in the tournament, but was eliminated in the first round for the second year in a row, losing 7–10 to
Joe Perry, dropping him to number 13 in the
new world rankings, and finishing the season outside the top 32 in 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
2008 Shanghai Masters and
2008 Grand Prix.
Dott won the Berlin leg of the
World Series of Snooker, but withdrew from the Moscow event two days before it began, as his wife was preparing to give birth. He reached the second round of the
2009 World Championship for the first time since winning the title in 2006, but lost to
Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the ...
10–13, causing him to drop out of the top 16.
At the
2010 World Championship, Dott produced an unlikely run to his third World final in six years. He had not had much success in the
2009–10 season going into the World Championship, with only one ranking last 16 finish in the
2010 Welsh Open. However, a newly inspired Dott convincingly knocked out
Peter Ebdon
Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English former snooker player. The winner of the 2002 World Snooker Championship, Ebdon won nine world ranking events, placing twelfth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In addit ...
in the first round 10–5. He then thrashed fellow Scot
Stephen Maguire
Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional in ...
13–6 in the second round, and for the first time since winning the title in 2006, advanced to the quarter-finals where he recovered from 10 to 12 behind to see off
Mark Allen 13–12. In his 17–14 defeat of
Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the ...
in the semi-final, he scored the second 146 clearance in the 83-year history of the World Championship (the first had been scored by Mark Allen just days earlier in his second round match). Dott was eventually defeated in the final 13–18 by
Neil Robertson
Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...
, who had never beaten Dott previously, an ironic twist after Dott had defeated previous champion Ebdon for the first time in winning his own title in 2006. Despite having to settle for runner-up spot, Dott's efforts were ultimately rewarded with a return to the top 16 for 2010/2011.
He returned a year later with a strong campaign at the
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
, beating
Mark King and
Ali Carter
Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been the World Championship runner-up, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won four ranking titles and briefly reached numb ...
before losing to in-form
Judd Trump
Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player, a former world champion and former world number one. Widely regarded as one of the sport's most talented players, he is currently sixth on the list of all-time ranki ...
in the quarter-finals. He finished the
2010–11 season ranked
world number 10.
2011/2012 season
Dott missed the first ranking event of the
2011–12 season, the
Australian Goldfields Open
The Australian Goldfields Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament. The final champion was John Higgins in 2015.
History
Australia had previously hosted the 1971 and 1975 World Snooker Championships, as well as several other high-pr ...
due a neck injury, but he took part in the remaining seven ranking tournaments. He was knocked out in the first round in the
Shanghai Masters and
Welsh Open and didn't get past the last 16 of the
2011 UK Championship,
German Masters
The German Masters is a professional ranking snooker tournament held at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany since 2011. The 2021 event was held at Milton Keynes in England because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zhao Xintong is the reigning champion, h ...
or the
China Open. Dott's best run of the season came at the
World Open, where he beat
Barry Hawkins
Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championship ...
and
Marcus Campbell
Marcus Campbell (born 22 September 1972) is a Scottish former professional snooker player. He was ranked within the world's top 64 for 15 consecutive seasons.
Career
Campbell is most famous for whitewashing Stephen Hendry 9–0 in the 1998 ...
, before losing 1–5 to
Stephen Lee in the quarter-finals. He also reached the quarter-finals of the
Masters, where he was defeated by
John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...
3–6.
Dott lost 2–4 to
Ben Woollaston
Ben Woollaston (born 14 May 1987) is an English professional snooker player from Leicester. His sole professional title came at the minor-ranking third Players Tour Championship event in 2011. Woollaston's only ranking event final came at the ...
in the final of
Event 3 of the minor-ranking
Players Tour Championship
The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification ...
, after earlier having overcome
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...
,
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
and John Higgins. He also reached three semi-finals after playing in 11 of the 12 events throughout the season. Those results meant that Dott finished 7th on the PTC
Order of Merit and therefore qualified to the last 16 of the
Finals
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
, where he lost 2–4 to
Joe Perry.
Dott played in the first ever professional snooker tournament in South America, the non-ranking
Brazil Masters, and reached the final only to be whitewashed 0–5 by
Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting.
Born in Harlow, Essex and r ...
. He also lost in the final of the
Snooker Shoot-Out to
Barry Hawkins
Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championship ...
, in a tournament where the winner of each round is decided by a 10-minute frame.
Dott's season came to an unceremonious end when he suffered his heaviest ever World Championship defeat, losing to Joe Perry 1–10. He stated after the match that it was the worst he had played as a professional. Nevertheless, he maintained his place in the elite top 16 at number 13.
2012/2013 season
During the 2012/2013 season, Dott lost in the last 16 of the
2012 UK Championship (2–6 to
Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting.
Born in Harlow, Essex and r ...
), the
German Masters
The German Masters is a professional ranking snooker tournament held at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany since 2011. The 2021 event was held at Milton Keynes in England because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zhao Xintong is the reigning champion, h ...
(4–5 to Murphy), the
Welsh Open (1–4 to
Pankaj Advani), the
World Open (0–5 to
Neil Robertson
Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...
), and the
China Open (4–5 to
Marcus Campbell
Marcus Campbell (born 22 September 1972) is a Scottish former professional snooker player. He was ranked within the world's top 64 for 15 consecutive seasons.
Career
Campbell is most famous for whitewashing Stephen Hendry 9–0 in the 1998 ...
). He reached the quarter-finals of the
Wuxi Classic
The Wuxi Classic was a professional snooker tournament held from 2008 to 2014 in the city of Wuxi, China. It was a ranking event from 2012 through 2014. For the 2015/16 season, World Snooker reduced the number of ranking events held in China, whi ...
, where he lost 0–5 to
Mark Davis Mark Davis may refer to:
Entertainers
*Mark Davis (talk show host), American radio talk show host
* Mark Jonathan Davis (born 1965), American actor/singer and creator of Richard Cheese
*Mark Davis, American bassist and founding member for the band ...
, and the
Shanghai Masters, where he lost 4–5 to
Judd Trump
Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player, a former world champion and former world number one. Widely regarded as one of the sport's most talented players, he is currently sixth on the list of all-time ranki ...
.
At the
2013 Masters, Dott defeated
Stephen Maguire
Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional in ...
6–5 and Trump 6–1 to reach the semi-finals. Despite taking a 4–1 lead in his semi-final match, Dott lost 5–6 to eventual tournament winner
Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the ...
.
At the
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
, Dott defeated
Peter Ebdon
Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English former snooker player. The winner of the 2002 World Snooker Championship, Ebdon won nine world ranking events, placing twelfth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In addit ...
10–6 in a first-round match that lasted 7 hours 18 minutes, with an extra session added after the players failed to complete the match in the time allotted for the first two sessions. After the match, Dott criticised Ebdon's slow, deliberative style of play and called for a rule to limit the amount of time a player could spend over a shot. Dott became the only Scottish player to reach the second round, after
John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...
,
Stephen Maguire
Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional in ...
,
Marcus Campbell
Marcus Campbell (born 22 September 1972) is a Scottish former professional snooker player. He was ranked within the world's top 64 for 15 consecutive seasons.
Career
Campbell is most famous for whitewashing Stephen Hendry 9–0 in the 1998 ...
, and
Alan McManus
Alan McManus (born 21 January 1971) is a Scottish retired professional snooker player and current commentator who works for Eurosport. A mainstay of the world's top sixteen during the 1990s and 2000s, he has won two ranking events, the 1994 Du ...
all suffered first-round defeats. Facing
Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting.
Born in Harlow, Essex and r ...
in his second-round match, he trailed 2–6 after the first session. During the second session, he complained about receiving
static shocks when he touched the table, and the players took their mid-session interval a frame early while the carpet was sprayed with water to address the problem. Dott managed to level the match at 8–8 after the second session, but went on to lose 11–13. His defeat meant that, for the first time since 1988, no Scottish player competed in the World Championship quarter-finals.
2013/2014 season
Dott's 2013/2014 season got off to a poor start, as he was whitewashed 0–5 by
Jimmy Robertson in the last 64 of the season's first major ranking event, the
2013 Wuxi Classic. More disappointing results followed, including a 2–4 loss to
Ratchayothin Yotharuck in the last 128 of the
2013 Indian Open, but he recovered to reach the semi-finals of the
International Championship, where he lost 7–9 to eventual tournament winner
Ding Junhui
Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (200 ...
.
He reached the last 16 of the
2013 UK Championship, but was beaten 2–6 by
Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the ...
. He advanced to the quarter-finals of the
World Open and reeled off four frames in a row to level his match against
Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting.
Born in Harlow, Essex and r ...
, but the Englishman fluked the final black in the decider to defeat him 5–4. At the
China Open, Dott reached another quarter-final but lost 3–5 to world number one
Neil Robertson
Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...
. He missed out on playing in the
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
for the first time since 1999 as he was knocked out by
Kyren Wilson
Kyren Wilson (; born 23 December 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Kettering and a five-time ranking event winner. He has been a runner-up at two of the three Triple Crown events, having reached the final at both the 2018 ...
7–10 in the final qualifying round. Dott ended the season outside the top 16 for the first time in six years, as world number 17.
In July 2014, Dott started coaching snooker professionally to help encourage and influence the rising number of younger players within his native Scotland.
2014/2015 season
Dott's first quarter-final appearance of the
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...
came at the
Shanghai Masters after he defeated Yan Bingtao 5–2 and
Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting.
Born in Harlow, Essex and r ...
5–3, but he lost 2–5 to
Ding Junhui
Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (200 ...
. He suffered a 1–6 first round loss to
Craig Steadman
Craig Steadman (born 14 July 1982) is an English professional snooker player.
Career
Early career
Steadman began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2001, at the time the second-level professional tour. He reached the quarte ...
at the
International Championship, before whitewashing
Robert Milkins
Robert Milkins (born 6 March 1976) is an English professional snooker player. Considered one of the most naturally talented and quickest players in the game, Milkins has been a mainstay on the tour since regaining his tour card in 1998.
Milkin ...
6–0 to face
Neil Robertson
Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...
in the fourth round of the
2014 UK Championship.
He went 5–0 up, only for Robertson to level at 5–5, before Dott won the decider to reach the quarter-finals of the event for the first time since 2006. Dott said that he had reverted to the way he played in 2010, with a more carefree approach to the game which he felt had helped his good form in the tournament. In the quarter-finals, he once again let his lead slip but this time couldn't recover as
Stuart Bingham
Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player who is a former world and Masters champion. Bingham won the 1996 World Amateur Championship but enjoyed little sustained success in the early part of his professional ...
came back from 1–4 down to defeat him 6–5. At the inaugural
World Grand Prix, Dott came through a pair of deciding frames against
John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...
and
Liang Wenbo
Liang Wenbo (; born 25 March 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player based at the Oracle Snooker Club, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. Liang, who plays left-handed, has reached one Triple Crown final, made three Masters appearances, and ...
, before losing 1–4 to
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...
in the quarter-finals.
2015/2016 season
Dott advanced to the third round of the
International Championship courtesy of wins over
Jamie Burnett
Jamie Burnett (born 16 September 1975) is a Scottish former professional snooker player from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire.
A journeyman, Burnett was ranked within the world's top 64 players for 20 consecutive years between 1996 and 2016, reac ...
and
Peter Ebdon
Peter David Ebdon (born 27 August 1970) is an English former snooker player. The winner of the 2002 World Snooker Championship, Ebdon won nine world ranking events, placing twelfth on the all-time list of ranking tournament winners. In addit ...
, but he was defeated 1–6 by
Neil Robertson
Neil Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player who is a former world champion and former world number one. The only Australian to have won a ranking event, he is also the only player from outside the United ...
. He lost in the second round of the
2015 UK Championship
The 2015 BetVictor UK Championship was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament that took place between 24 November and 6 December 2015 at the Barbican Centre, York, Barbican Centre in York, England. It was the fourth ran ...
5–6 to
Jack Lisowski
Jack Adam Lisowski (born 25 June 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Churchdown, Gloucestershire. He turned professional in 2010 by finishing first in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. A left-handed player, he is known for his atta ...
.
At the
German Masters
The German Masters is a professional ranking snooker tournament held at the Tempodrom in Berlin, Germany since 2011. The 2021 event was held at Milton Keynes in England because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zhao Xintong is the reigning champion, h ...
, he knocked out
Tian Pengfei
Tian Pengfei (, born 16 August 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He began his career by playing the Challenge Tour in 2004, at the time the second-level professional tour. Tian played on the Main Tour in 2006 and competed on the ...
5–0,
Barry Hawkins
Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championship ...
5–3, and
Stephen Maguire
Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional in ...
5–1, to play in his first ranking event semi-final in over two years. He was well below his best against
Martin Gould
Martin Gould (born 14 September 1981) is an English professional snooker player from Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. He has appeared in four ranking finals and won one ranking title, the 2016 German Masters.
Career
Gould began his pr ...
as he lost the first four frames of the match and was defeated 2–6. Dott was eliminated in the third round of both the
Welsh Open and
China Open, 2–4 to
Marco Fu
Marco Fu Ka-chun, MH, JP (, born 8 January 1978) is a Hong Kong professional snooker player. He is a three-time snooker world rankings, ranking event winner, having won the 2007 Grand Prix (snooker), 2007 Grand Prix, the 2013 Australian ...
and 1–5 to
Noppon Saengkham
Noppon Saengkham (; born 15 July 1992) is a Thai professional snooker player.
Career
Early years
In April 2009, Saengkham lost in the final of the ACBS Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship 1–5 to Zhang Anda. He went one better at the 2009 IBS ...
respectively.
Three tight wins helped him qualify for the
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
, but he lost 4–10 to
Mark Williams in the opening round.
2016/2017 season
The
2016–17 season proved to be the first since 2002/2003 that Dott failed to reach the quarter-finals of a ranking event. He had to wait until the
2017 Welsh Open in February to play in the third round of an event, after beating
Ricky Walden
Ricky Walden (born 11 November 1982) is an English professional snooker player from Chester.
Walden turned professional in 2000 and it took him eight years to win his first ranking title at the Shanghai Masters. He has since won the 2012 Wuxi ...
and
Adam Stefanów
Adam Stefanów (born 22 March 1994 in Nowa Sól, Lubuskie) is a Polish former professional snooker player. Stefanów lives in Sheffield, England. He received an Invitational Tour Card after finishing runner-up in the 2018 WSF Championship. His ...
, but he lost 2–4 to
Lee Walker
Lee Walker (born 11 February 1976) is a Welsh former professional snooker player who is the reigning World Seniors Champion. He is both an official WPBSA and SightRight coach.
Career
After turning professional in 1994 at the age of 18, Walker r ...
. He qualified for the
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
and beat
Ali Carter
Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been the World Championship runner-up, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won four ranking titles and briefly reached numb ...
10–7 in the first round, before being defeated 6–13 by
Barry Hawkins
Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championship ...
.
Personal life
In his 2011 autobiography ''Frame of Mind'', Dott describes his childhood growing up in the run-down Easterhouse estate in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
. As a boy, he developed a strong relationship with Alex Lambie, a snooker club owner from Larkhall in Lanarkshire, who mentored Dott from the age of 12 and went on to manage his professional career. Dott has described Lambie as a "second father" to him.
In 1997, Dott began a relationship with Lambie's 16-year-old daughter Elaine.
The couple married in 2003 and had their first child, a son named Lewis, in 2004.
In January 2006, Alex Lambie was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer. Although he lived to see Dott win the World Championship in May of that year, he died on 16 December 2006, while Dott was playing in the
2006 UK Championship. Weeks afterward, Elaine, who was pregnant, had a cancer scare when doctors discovered potentially cancerous cysts on her ovaries. Although she turned out not to have cancer, she suffered a miscarriage while Dott was playing in the
2007 Masters. After these experiences, Dott entered a severe depression, which affected his commitment to practice and his performance in matches.
He lost 15 professional matches in a row and slid down the rankings, dropping out of the top 16.
Medication subsequently helped him recover his place in the top 16, although he expects his battle with depression to be lifelong.
Dott and his wife had a second child, a daughter Lucy, born in November 2008.
Dott 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.
Performance and rankings timeline
Career finals
Ranking finals: 10 (2 titles)
Minor-ranking finals: 2
Non-ranking finals: 5 (1 title)
Pro-am finals: 9 (4 titles)
Team finals: 1 (1 title)
Amateur finals: 1 (1 title)
Sources
*
References
Further reading
*
External links
Graeme Dottat ''worldsnooker.com''
Player profile on Global Snooker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dott, Graeme
Scottish snooker players
1977 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Larkhall
Winners of the professional snooker world championship