1. Early Career
Graeme Dott's journey in snooker began with significant amateur success. He won the UK Under-19 Championship in 1992 and the Scottish Amateur Championship in 1993, defeating Neil Martin 8-4 in the final. These achievements paved his way to turning professional in 1994.
Dott steadily climbed the world rankings, eventually entering the top 16 in 2001, a position he maintained until 2009. His early professional career saw him reach the quarter-finals of the 1996 Welsh Open and qualify for the World Snooker Championship for the first time in 1997. He also made his first competitive 147 break at the 1999 British Open. Dott reached several finals during this period, finishing as runner-up in the 1999 Scottish Open (losing 1-9 to Stephen Hendry), the 2001 British Open (losing 6-9 to John Higgins), the 2004 World Championship, and the 2005 Malta Cup (losing 7-9 to Stephen Hendry again).
2. Major Career Achievements
Graeme Dott's career is marked by several significant achievements, including a World Championship title, other ranking event victories, and reaching a career-high world ranking.
2.1. 2006 World Championship Victory
Dott's most significant triumph came at the 2006 World Snooker Championship. He began his campaign with a dominant 10-3 victory over former champion John Parrott. In the second round, he defeated veteran Nigel Bond 13-9. His quarter-final match against Australia's Neil Robertson was a closely contested affair, with Dott taking a 12-8 lead, being pegged back to 12-12, and ultimately winning the deciding frame 13-12.
In the semi-finals, Dott faced two-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in a rematch of their 2004 Championship final. The match was tied 8-8 after the second session, but Dott dominated the third session to secure a 17-11 victory, advancing to the final.
Dott then faced Peter Ebdon in the final, competing for the 200.00 K GBP prize. Dott started the final session with a commanding 15-7 lead. However, Ebdon mounted a strong comeback, winning six consecutive frames to reduce the deficit to just two. Despite the pressure, Dott held his nerve, winning crucial frames with impressive clearances, and ultimately triumphed 18-14. This final stands as the longest ever in World Championship history and, at the time, was the latest to finish, concluding at 12:49 AM GMT. The slow pace of play was notable, with both afternoon sessions featuring only six frames instead of the usual eight. Furthermore, the 27th frame, lasting over 74 minutes, set a new record for the longest frame in World Championship history at that time. The victory propelled Dott's ranking to number 6 for the 2006/2007 season, a career-high at that point.
2.2. Other Ranking Titles and Runner-up Finishes
Beyond his World Championship success, Dott secured another ranking title and reached several other significant finals. In 2007, he won his second ranking tournament, the 2007 China Open, by defeating Jamie Cope 9-5. This victory briefly made him the provisional world number one. Prior to this win, Dott had expressed a dislike for traveling to China, partly due to a disastrous match in 2002.
Dott also reached the final of the 2010 World Snooker Championship, his third World Championship final appearance in six years. Despite a challenging 2009-10 season leading up to the event, he made an impressive run, defeating Peter Ebdon 10-5, Stephen Maguire 13-6, and recovering from 10-12 down to beat Mark Allen 13-12 in the quarter-finals. In his 17-14 semi-final victory over Mark Selby, Dott made the second 146 clearance in the World Championship's 83-year history. He was ultimately defeated 13-18 in the final by Neil Robertson. Despite the loss, his performance earned him a return to the top 16 for the 2010/2011 season.
His other notable runner-up finishes in ranking events include:
- 1999 Scottish Open (lost to Stephen Hendry 1-9)
- 2001 British Open (lost to John Higgins 6-9)
- 2004 World Snooker Championship (lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan 8-18)
- 2005 Malta Cup (lost to Stephen Hendry 7-9)
- 2018 German Masters (lost to Mark Williams 1-9)
- 2018 Snooker Shoot Out (lost to Michael Georgiou 0-1)
- 2020 World Grand Prix (lost to Neil Robertson 8-10)
2.3. Peak World Ranking
Graeme Dott achieved his career-high world ranking of World Number 2 during the 2007/08 season. This ranking reflected his consistent high-level performance and major tournament victories, particularly his 2006 World Championship title and 2007 China Open win. However, this peak was followed by a period of significant personal and professional challenges that impacted his ability to maintain this elite position.
3. Mental Health and Comeback
Graeme Dott experienced a severe period of clinical depression, which profoundly affected his snooker career and personal life. This difficult phase was triggered by a series of personal tragedies. In January 2006, his long-time mentor and manager, Alex Lambie, who Dott considered a "second father," was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer. Lambie lived to see Dott win the World Championship in May 2006 but passed away on 16 December 2006, while Dott was competing in the UK Championship.
Weeks after Lambie's death, Dott's pregnant wife, Elaine, faced a cancer scare when doctors found potentially cancerous cysts on her ovaries. Although the cysts were not cancerous, Elaine suffered a miscarriage while Dott was playing in the 2007 Masters. These cumulative emotional traumas led Dott into a deep depression, which severely impacted his commitment to practice and his performance in matches. He endured a period where he lost 15 consecutive professional matches, causing his ranking to plummet from the top 16 to number 28 for the 2009-10 season.
With the aid of medication, Dott began his recovery and gradually regained his form. He has stated that he expects his battle with depression to be lifelong. His resilience was evident in his comeback, culminating in his run to the 2010 World Championship final, which saw him return to the top 16.
4. Later Career and Coaching
Following his recovery from depression and his strong showing at the 2010 World Championship, Dott continued to compete on the professional snooker circuit, though his career saw fluctuations in form and ranking.
In the 2007 World Snooker Championship, as the defending champion, Dott suffered a surprising 7-10 defeat in the first round to Ian McCulloch, maintaining the "Crucible curse" for first-time champions. The 2007-08 snooker season was particularly challenging, with Dott describing his form as "hopeless." Despite reaching the semi-finals of the 2007 Shanghai Masters, he subsequently suffered a run of twelve consecutive defeats, including all five group matches in the 2007 Grand Prix. He was eliminated early from several tournaments and withdrew from others due to a broken left arm sustained while playing football in 2008.
Despite these setbacks, Dott won the Berlin leg of the World Series of Snooker in 2008. He reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship in 2011, losing to Judd Trump, and finished the 2010-11 season ranked World Number 10.
The 2011-12 snooker season saw Dott miss the first ranking event due to a neck injury. He reached the quarter-finals of the World Open and the Masters. He also reached the final of a minor-ranking event, the Sheffield Open, losing to Ben Woollaston. Dott also competed in the first professional snooker tournament in South America, the non-ranking 2011 Brazil Masters, reaching the final but losing 0-5 to Shaun Murphy. He also lost in the final of the 2012 Snooker Shoot-Out to Barry Hawkins. His season ended with his heaviest World Championship defeat, a 1-10 loss to Joe Perry, though he maintained his top 16 ranking at number 13.
In the 2012-13 snooker season, Dott reached the semi-finals of the 2013 Masters, losing to Mark Selby. At the 2013 World Snooker Championship, he defeated Peter Ebdon in a first-round match that lasted over seven hours, after which Dott criticized Ebdon's slow play. He also experienced unusual static shocks when touching the table during his second-round match against Shaun Murphy, which he eventually lost 11-13. His defeat meant that for the first time since 1988, no Scottish player reached the World Championship quarter-finals.
The 2013-14 snooker season started poorly, but Dott recovered to reach the semi-finals of the International Championship, losing to Ding Junhui. He also reached quarter-finals at the World Open and China Open. However, he missed out on the 2014 World Snooker Championship for the first time since 1999 after losing in the final qualifying round, causing him to drop out of the top 16 to World Number 17.
In July 2014, Dott began coaching snooker professionally, aiming to support and develop emerging young talent in Scotland. He continued to compete, reaching the quarter-finals of the 2014 Shanghai Masters, 2014 UK Championship, and 2015 World Grand Prix during the 2014-15 snooker season. In the 2015-16 snooker season, he reached his first ranking event semi-final in over two years at the 2016 German Masters, where he lost to Martin Gould. He qualified for the 2016 World Snooker Championship but lost in the opening round. The 2016-17 snooker season was the first since 2002/2003 that Dott did not reach a ranking event quarter-final, though he made it to the second round of the 2017 World Snooker Championship.
5. Personal Life
Graeme Dott was born on 12 May 1977, in Larkhall, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. He grew up in the Easterhouse estate in Glasgow, a challenging environment he described in his 2011 autobiography, Frame of Mind: The Autobiography of the World Snooker Champion.
A pivotal figure in Dott's life was Alex Lambie, a snooker club owner from Larkhall. Lambie mentored Dott from the age of 12 and later became his manager, with Dott referring to him as a "second father." In 1997, Dott began a relationship with Lambie's daughter, Elaine, who was 16 at the time. The couple married in 2003 and welcomed their first child, a son named Lewis, in 2004. Their second child, a daughter named Lucy, was born in November 2008.
Dott is a supporter of Rangers, a Scottish football club. Following his 2006 World Championship victory, he proudly paraded his trophy at Ibrox Stadium, Rangers' home ground, during half-time of a league match on 7 May 2006.
6. Career Statistics and Records
This section provides a comprehensive overview of Graeme Dott's professional snooker career through statistical data, including his career finals across different tournament types.
6.1. Career Finals
Graeme Dott has appeared in numerous finals throughout his career, including major ranking events, minor-ranking events, non-ranking tournaments, pro-am events, and team competitions.
Ranking finals: 10 (2 titles)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner-up | 1. | 1999 | Scottish Open | Stephen Hendry | 1-9 |
| Runner-up | 2. | 2001 | British Open | John Higgins | 6-9 |
| Runner-up | 3. | 2004 | World Snooker Championship | Ronnie O'Sullivan | 8-18 |
| Runner-up | 4. | 2005 | Malta Cup | Stephen Hendry | 7-9 |
| Winner | 1. | 2006 | World Snooker Championship | Peter Ebdon | 18-14 |
| Winner | 2. | 2007 | China Open | Jamie Cope | 9-5 |
| Runner-up | 5. | 2010 | World Snooker Championship | Neil Robertson | 13-18 |
| Runner-up | 6. | 2018 | German Masters | Mark Williams | 1-9 |
| Runner-up | 7. | 2018 | Snooker Shoot Out | Michael Georgiou | 0-1 |
| Runner-up | 8. | 2020 | World Grand Prix | Neil Robertson | 8-10 |
Minor-ranking finals: 2
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner-up | 1. | 2011 | Sheffield Open | Ben Woollaston | 2-4 |
| Runner-up | 2. | 2013 | FFB Open | Mark Selby | 3-4 |
Non-ranking finals: 5 (1 title)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 2008 | World Series of Snooker Berlin | Shaun Murphy | 6-1 |
| Runner-up | 1. | 2009 | World Series of Snooker Prague | Jimmy White | 3-5 |
| Runner-up | 2. | 2011 | Brazil Masters | Shaun Murphy | 0-5 |
| Runner-up | 3. | 2012 | Snooker Shoot Out | Barry Hawkins | 0-1 |
| Runner-up | 4. | 2020 | Championship League (March) | Scott Donaldson | 0-3 |
Pro-am finals: 9 (4 titles)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner-up | 1. | 1994 | Pontins Spring Open | Wayne Brown | 3-7 |
| Winner | 1. | 1995 | Pontins Autumn Open | Stephen Lee | 5-1 |
| Runner-up | 2. | 1996 | Marseille International Open | Matthew Couch | 4-5 |
| Winner | 2. | 1997 | Austrian Open | Matthew Couch | 7-6 |
| Runner-up | 3. | 2008 | Belgian Open | Ricky Walden | 0-4 |
| Runner-up | 4. | 2016 | PMK Invitational Pro-Am | Anthony McGill | 2-4 |
| Winner | 3. | 2017 | PMK Invitational Pro-Am | Eden Sharav | 4-3 |
| Winner | 4. | 2018 | PMK Invitational Pro-Am | Joe Swail | 4-0 |
| Runner-up | 5. | 2019 | PMK Invitational Pro-Am | Michael Collumb | 3-4 |
Team finals: 1 (1 title)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Team | Opponent in the final | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 2017 | CVB Snooker Challenge | Great Britain | China | 26-9 |
Amateur finals: 1 (1 title)
| Outcome | No. | Year | Championship | Opponent in the final | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1. | 1993 | Scottish Amateur Championship | Neil Martin | 8-4 |