Dott makes sluggish start

Snooker: Reigning champion Graeme Dott made a sluggish start to the defence of his World Championship title after blowing a …

Snooker:Reigning champion Graeme Dott made a sluggish start to the defence of his World Championship title after blowing a two-frame lead to trail Ian McCulloch 5-4 in Sheffield today.

The number one seed had a golden opportunity to go 5-2 ahead of the world number 26 in their best-of-19 first-round tie, but was made to pay for a simple miss on the pink as McCulloch went on to take the final three frames of the opening session.

No first-time winner at the Crucible has ever managed to successfully defend their title the following season, and after potting the white on his very first shot of the tournament, the early omens did not look promising for the Scot.

Dott had plenty of opportunities to close out the opening frame but neither he nor the Preston player seemed to be enjoying the early 10am start, and it was the 2005 semi-finalist - winner of both of the pair's previous  professional meetings - who eventually prevailed.

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The world number six fought back, recording a 61 break in the third, the biggest of the session, to take a 2-1 lead before the qualifier squared things up in another topsy-turvy frame.

It was Dott, last month's China Open champion, who took the first two frames after the interval and looked set to take the seventh with a break of 56.

But McCulloch, the victor in their first-round Crucible meeting two years ago, punished misses on the pink in the seventh and eighth frames before clearing green to black to take a narrow lead into tonight's session, which plays to finish from 7pm.