It’s been exactly two years since Graeme Dott reached a ranking event semi-final but he’s done it again - and it wasn’t short of drama
The 2006 world champion found himself 4-0 down against Xiao Guodong before staging a remarkable comeback to win 5-4 in their quarter-final match.
The turnaround was made even more dramatic in the fact that Xiao also missed match-ball black to wrap up the contest 5-1.
But if Dotty is nothing else, he is tenacious and proved it again here to set up a semi-final tie with Shaun Murphy who came through an equally tense match 5-4 against Ryan Day.
Dott is enjoying a fine run here and has not had it easy needing to win three of his five matches with a deciding frame to get this far with his match against Mei Xiwen going the distance as well as one of his qualifiers with Peter Ebdon.
The Scot’s progress through to the last four is most certainly not out of the blue. There were signs he was quietly playing himself back into form at the UK Championship where he gave a timely reminder of what he’s capable of on the big stage by beating Judd Trump to reach the last 16.
Into the twilight years of his career, these are occasions he will probably enjoy all the more now and shows that class really is permanent.
In the other semi-final, Judd Trump takes on Mark Williams. Trump edged past Ding Junhui 5-3 and Williams beat Jimmy Robertson by the same scoreline.
Now down to the one-table set-up at The Tempodrom, this venue really comes to life now and this is where we see why it is regarded as a fantastic place to play snooker with the atmosphere sure to be befitting the battle for a ranking title.
