Rate it!

0 votes

Graeme Dott displayed glimpses of his rich form of last season in reaching the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters with a gritty 5-4 win over the rejuvenated Mark Williams.

Dott showed why he reached the final of the World Championship in May as he ousted Williams in the first major ranking event of the season courtesy of some typically steady matchplay snooker.

The pair shared the opening two frames of the day before breaks of 44 and 39 helped Dott establish a 2-1 lead.

An effort of 43 helped the 2006 world winner move 3-1 ahead at the mid-session interval before Williams contributed his own effort of 44 to reduce his arrears to 3-2.

Both men had chances in frame six but Williams, a Crucible world champion in 2000 and 2003, doubled a blue to leave Dott needing snookers.

Dott broke down on 61 in the next frame, but Williams could not take advantage. He made a 36, but a kick on the final red saw him lose position on a black ball he would miss to fall 4-3 behind.

Williams was hardly finished as a fine break of 83 forced a deciding frame.

Dott, who lost to Neil Robertson 18-13 in this year's World Championship final, was first among the balls in the final frame as he made a 70.

Failure to split the reds from a black gave Williams a glimmer of hope, but a poor safety shot saw the Scotsman pot the next red before Williams offered his handshake knowing the game was up in his bid to add the Shanghai Masters to the China Open title he clinched in April.

In other matches in the second round, Ali Carter won the battle of the Essex boys as he outlasted Stuart Bingham 5-3 to book his spot in the quarter-finals.

Neither man hit top form, but Carter was never behind against Bingham. He led 2-0, but was pegged back to 3-3 before wrapping up the win by pocketing the next two frames as Bingham failed to make any telling visits to the table.

In the morning's other matches, Jamie Burnett reached his first ranking quarter-final in 14 years, the highlight of his 5-0 drubbing of Andrew Higginson being runs of 60 and 42 in the third frame.

Mark Davis fought back from trailing 3-2 to upset former UK champion Stephen Maguire 5-3. Maguire oversaw a 100 break in the fifth frame, but it was not enough as Davis reeled off the next three frames.

He will face Burnett for a place in the last four.

Eurosport