Graeme Dott
 Graeme Dott at the 2011 German Masters. | |
| Born | 12 May 1977 Larkhall, Scotland |
|---|---|
| Sport country |  Scotland |
| Nickname | The Pocket Dynamo[1] |
| Professional | 1994– |
| Highest ranking | 2 |
| Current ranking | 55 (as of 11 November 2024) |
| Century breaks | 270 (as of 23 November 2024) |
| Tournament wins | |
| Ranking | 2 |
| World Champion | 2006 |
Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish 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 followed this up with the 2007 China Open and reached #2 in the World Rankings, but subsequently suffered from depression and experienced a loss of form, dropping out of the top 16 for the 2009/2010 season, before rediscovering his form and reaching his third World Championship final in 2010.
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, 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 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 deciding frame, winning the tie 13–12. In the semi-finals he faced former two-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in a rematch of the 2004 final. 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,[6] 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 such 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 in the history of the World Championship (until 2009), even beating the 70 minute mark of the previous record set by Canadian Cliff Thorburn and Welshman Doug Mountjoy.
The victory over Ebdon took his ranking up to number 6 for 2006/07 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 (who he has never beaten in a ranking tournament)[7] after having led 7–5. Dott briefly became the provisional world number one in the rankings system after overcoming Jamie Cope 9–5 to win the 2007 China Open, his second ranking tournament win.[8] Prior to this, he disliked going to China, not helped by a disastrous match in 2002.[9] However, going into the 2007 World Championship as defending champion, he suffered a shock 7–10 defeat in the first round to Ian McCulloch[10] in the opening match of the tournament, which dented his prospects of remaining no. 1. 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.
The 2007/2008 season was more of a struggle for Dott,[11] who described his late-2007 form as "hopeless... nowhere near to playing a good enough standard".[12] 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 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 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, while in the Masters he lost 5–6 to eventual runner-up Stephen Lee for the third successive year.[13] 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 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 could miss out on the 2008 World Championship, due to personal reasons, and according to his manager he had been suffering from depression.[citation needed] However, Dott 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,[14] subsequently sliding to #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 2008/2009, when a broken left arm sustained while playing football forced him to pull out of the 2008 Shanghai Masters[15] and 2008 Grand Prix.
Dott did win the Berlin leg of the World Series of Snooker,[16] but withdrew from the Moscow event two days before it began, due to his wife preparing to give birth.[17] 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 10–13, dropping him out of the top 16.
In the 2010 World Championship Dott produced an unlikely run to his third World final in six years. Dott had not had much success in the 2009/2010 season going into the World Championship, with only one ranking last 16 finish, in the 2010 Welsh Open; however, with the two tournament favourites, defending champion John Higgins and world #1 Ronnie O'Sullivan, both falling victim to unexpected early exits from the tournament, a newly-inspired Dott convincingly knocked out Peter Ebdon in the first round 10–5. He then thrashed fellow Scot Stephen Maguire 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 10–12 behind to see off Mark Allen 13–12. In his 17–14 defeat of Mark Selby in the semi-final he scored the second 146 clearance in the 83-year history of the World Championship. Dott was eventually defeated in the final 13–18 by Neil Robertson, who had never beaten Dott previously – ironically after Dott had defeated 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.[18]
Dott returned a year later with a strong campaign at the World Championship beating Mark King and Ali Carter before losing to in-form Judd Trump in the quarter-finals.[19]
Personal life
Dott married Elaine Lambie in 2003, and the couple celebrated the birth of their son, Lewis, in 2004. They also have a daughter, Lucy. Elaine is the daughter of Dott's former manager, Alex Lambie, who managed Graeme from he was 12 years old. Alex died on 16 December 2006 of kidney cancer. Weeks after this, Elaine suffered a miscarriage. Elaine also had a cancer scare around the same time.[20] Dott was diagnosed with depression shortly afterwards, and is now on medication. He supports Rangers[21] 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. He plays online poker, and is teetotal.[9]
