Mark Selby trails to Graeme Dott in semi-final
Graeme Dott took a 5-3 lead over Mark Selby at the end of the first session of their world championship semi-final. Selby looked to be feeling the strains of his magnificent victory over Ronnie O’Sullivan and it was Dott who came out flying.
The Scotsman took the opening frame after making a solid 79, and should have doubled his lead after he missed an easy green into the top right pocket while he was on a break of 53. From this Selby took the initiative and levelled.
The 2006 world champion made no mistake in the next two frames, as he made breaks of 71 and 48 to take a 3-1 lead into the mid-session interval. In a match that consisted of very long frames and tough safety battles, Selby, not playing particularly well, somehow managed to salvage the fifth frame.
However, Dott was looking the better and the fresher of the two players, and he went further clear with runs of 93 and 50 to open up a 5-2 lead. In the final frame of the session, the Jester from Leicester bounced back and a superb break of 142 kept him in touch to only trail by two.
The second session will resume today at 2.30pm.
Meanwhile, World Snooker announced yesterday that a new ranking event will take place next season in Berlin, Germany, called The German Masters. The tournament will feature the top 16 players in the world, 16 qualifiers and eight German amateur players. It is the first time since 1996 that a ranking event will be played in Germany.
The event will take place between the 2nd and 6th of February next year. “We know that there is a huge interest for snooker in Germany. We can see this from our viewing figures on Eurosport, the number of German registered users on Worldsnooker.com and the German fans who come over to the UK to watch our events. It is time to give something back to our German fans. I am sure the event will be a great success,” said Barry Hearn, chairman of World Snooker.
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