Graeme Dott aims to turn his "horrendous" season around as he prepares to defend his China Open title.

A year ago, he knocked out the likes of John Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan to reach the final, where he beat Jamie Cope 9-5.

But the current campaign has yielded few positive results for Dott and he has failed to win any of his last 13 matches on the World Snooker Tour.

"It has been a horrendous season," admitted the former 888.com world champion.

"I just hope that I can get somewhere near the form I showed in Beijing last year, which was the best I've ever played.

"It's all about just trying to win one match, which could turn things around. I don't want to be going to Sheffield on such a bad run."

Dott believes the loss of Alex Lambie, his father-in-law and former manager who died in December 2006, has had a knock-on effect on his performances.

"I've had a few personal problems this season," said the 30-year-old Scot, who is down to 11th in the provisional rankings.

"Particularly losing Alex. He was such a big part of everything I did in snooker so it's been hard to deal with that.

"I'm going to Beijing a few days early, as that helped me last year to get over the jetlag and to be ready for the tournament. Whether that helps my game remains to be seen. But I just have to keep punching and hope that my form comes back."

The Honghe Industrial 2008 China Open runs from March 24 to 30 at the Beijing Students University Stadium and features the world's top 16 players plus 16 qualifiers and eight Chinese wild cards.

Sporting Life / Eurosport