21.10.06

DOTT'S HOPES DASHED

After three sessions of play, the first day’s action here at the Royal London Watches Grand Prix has been fast and one player in particular has been furious.

Graeme Dott, no fan of the new round robin format before lay began, is even less enamoured with it now after suffering a 3-0 defeat to ding Jun Hui, who out-pointed the reigning 888.com world champion 296-2.

“I wish I could play all of my matches today so I could go home tomorrow,” Dott said. “I said to people before the tournament that the matches were too short but it was actually worse than I thought it would be. It’s horrible. You’ll get freaky results and I don’t see why that would be good viewing.”

Dott’s defeat to Ding was not unexpected given that the Chinese teenager had won the last ranking event, the Northern Ireland Trophy in Belfast.

Mark Williams was another top player to lose 3-0, beaten by Stuart Bingham. Shaun Murphy, the Crucible champion last year, was whitewashed by Ryan Day.

This format is certainly controversial but it’s far too early to say whether it is a good thing or not.

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