SCOTLAND’S former champion Graeme Dott has sealed his second-round spot at the world championships in Sheffield by beating two-time finalist Ali Carter 10-7.

 

Carter, trailing 6-3 overnight, began the session in fine style with a century (111), but Dott, who won the competition in 2006, hit back immediately with a break of 74.

The pair shared the next two frames, which were nervy affairs, before a 104 from Carter again reduced the deficit to two.

Scotsman Dott, ranked 19 places below would number 10 Carter, was not scoring as highly as his opponent but he successfully held off any comeback attempts to progress with a gritty performance.

Defeat for Carter was the first time he had failed to make the second round in 11 years.

Dott said he had to dig in for the victory.

“I’m just happy to be here because you’re not getting any younger,” he said. “I certainly tried to attack the ball as best I could, when it was necessary.

“I think you’ve got to do that here, you’re playing the best players in the world, you can’t go into your shell and just try and tippy-tippy about, it doesn’t work.

“I’m not the best at anything but I’m pretty good at everything and over the long games that’s all you need to be. I’m relatively steady all the way through so as long as I can play like that, I’m hard to beat.”

Meanwhile, Judd Trump was last night one frame away from a shock first-round exit to rank outsider Rory McLeod at the Betfred World Championship.

The world No 2, who won the opening four frames of the match but trailed 5-4 overnight, appeared frustrated for much of the session before play was halted until after the evening session with 46-year-old qualifier McLeod leading 9-7.

McLeod was priced at 1,000/1 to win the title by some bookmakers at the start of the tournament.