Scotland’s Graeme Dott struggled to explain what went wrong and why after he failed to reach the quarter-finals of the UK championships yesterday.
Dott slipped to a 6-2 defeat at the hands of England’s Mark Selby, who is bidding to become the first man since Stephen Hendry in 1995 to win back-to-back UK titles.
Former world champion Dott, who had beaten 2012 UK semi-finalist Ali Carter in the third round at the Barbican, was left bemused by his display in York.
“I was outplayed all the way through it,” he said. “Mark was better than me at everything. I never played well, I never showed up and it is disappointing.
“There’s nothing much you can do. Even some of the balls I was potting, I just wasn’t hitting them right. I just couldn’t get through the cue ball for some reason and struggled all day.
“I have no idea. You get days like that. But Mark played well and easily deserved to win.
“I’ve won three matches. From the way I’ve played it’s all I’ve deserved really.
“I didn’t deserve to go much further playing like this. I was hoping to improve but obviously I didn’t, so I deserved to lose.”
Dott found himself 3-1 down early but, after pulling back the next frame, ran Selby close for the sixth to almost draw level.
World number two Selby produced a vital clearance to restore his two-frame lead – and Dott is convinced he would have still lost from 3-3.
“I felt as though I was starting to hit the ball a bit better at that stage and it was a big blow to lose that frame,” he said.
“I’m not saying had I won that frame it might have changed because I might still have played the way I had been, but I was starting to find a little bit of momentum. It was my own fault for losing it – I missed so many balls.”
Dott’s exit leaves Stephen Maguire as the sole Scot standing in the UK championships after he beat compatriot John Higgins on Tuesday night. Dott would love to see Maguire lift the UK title for a second time. Maguire won it in 2004, but Dott knows there are plenty of great players for him to get past.
Dott added: “Stephen has obviously got a good chance and I hope he goes on and wins it.”
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