Ronnie O'Sullivan suffered only the seventh whitewash of his career when Graeme Dott produced a devastating performance to send him crashing out of the Malta Cup in Porto Maso tonight.
Dott, the world number 15 from Glasgow, barely missed a ball as he went some way to avenging his defeat by O'Sullivan in last year's Embassy World Championship final.
O'Sullivan potted only one ball in the first two frames and rashly conceded the third while leading 25-0 after missing a simple pink to a middle pocket.
Dott stepped in to take the fourth with a run of 114 and although he broke down on 63 in the fifth, he later potted yellow and green to get over the winning line.
"Graeme played well and didn't give me much of a chance," said O'Sullivan, winner of the Totesport Grand Prix in October and the Welsh Open last month.
"I was outplayed and outscored - it's just one of those things. It's difficult to motivate yourself to play well all the time when you don't feel comfortable with your game.
"I haven't been playing well for a long time and against a player of Graeme's calibre you'll lose if you don't produce the goods."
Dott, who had lost nine of his previous 10 meetings with O'Sullivan, led their Crucible final 5-0 but was beaten 18-8.
"Even before the start of the match I got the impression that Ronnie wasn't there tonight but I still had to go out and do a job," said Dott.
"He wasn't going to just lie down, but I played well. It can be hard to focus against Ronnie but I managed to do that."
