Graeme Dott (born May 12, 1977) is a professional snooker player
from Larkhall in Scotland. He is the current snooker world
champion.
Since turning professional in 1994, Dott has slowly climbed the
rankings, reaching the top sixteen in 2001, where he has remained
ever since. With his World Championship victory, he is now up to
number 6 in the rankings for 2006-07, 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 finally achieved a ranking tournament victory at the
888.com 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 scored his only competitive 147 break in the 1999 British
Open.
Dott married Elaine Lambie in 2001 and the couple celebrated the
birth of their son, Lewis, in 2004. Elaine is the daughter of
Dott's manager, Alex Lambie, whose brother John used to manage
Partick Thistle F.C..
He supports Rangers F.C. and paraded his World Championship
trophy at Ibrox Stadium during half-time of Rangers' final league
match against Hearts on 7 May 2006.
Dott started his campaign with a 10-3 victory over former
champion John Parrott, before beating veteran Nigel Bond 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 frame. In the semi-finals he faced
former two-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan. At 8-8 after the second
session of four sessions, Ronnie failed to perform in the third,
not winning any of the 8 frames and paving the way for Graeme to
win 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 World Championship
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 Irishman Dennis
Taylor, which finished at 12:19 a.m. The Dott-Ebdon match finished
half an hour later, this despite featuring 3 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 longest 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 famous slow players of the past.
