Rank outsider Graeme Dott stunned Ronnie O'Sullivan by winning the opening five frames of the Embassy World Championship final at The Crucible today but 'The Rocket' kept his composure to quickly cancel out Dott's advantage and earn an overnight lead of 9-7.
O'Sullivan was 1-12 on with the bookmakers at the start of the best-of-35 frame marathon - the shortest-ever odds to lift the world crown at the start of a final. But Dott, who had considered quitting the game in January after smashing his cue in frustration at his form, produced a superb display of potting against an initially out of sorts O'Sullivan with a series of decisive breaks.
It was only after going behind 5-0 to Dott, who hit five breaks of 60 plus during that period, that O'Sullivan started to show the kind of potting that had demolished Stephen Hendry in the semi-final.
He took six of the next seven frames to level the match at 6-6, that run started with a 13th century of the fortnight for O'Sullivan - only three short of the 2002 record of 16 by Stephen Hendry. But Dott was going nowhere and hit back with an excellent 86 break before O'Sullivan levelled it again as the match really began to take shape.
O'Sullivan significantly took the next to lead the match for the first time before showing patience to take the final frame of the day and earn a two-frame overnight lead at 9-7.
Filed by Johnny Proby
