• Snooker World Championship

Selby in touch after sloppy first day

Graeme Dott hit breaks of 70, 79 and 93 but will be disappointed he only leads 5-3 after a dominat display © Getty Images

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Graeme Dott took advantage of some uncharacteristically sloppy positional play from Mark Selby to secure a 5-3 lead in their World Championship semi-final. The Scotsman hit breaks of 70, 79 and 93 to build a deserved 5-2 lead but Selby finished the session on a high as he fired a superb break of 142 - the second highest break of the tournament - to gain a foothold in the match.

Dott, the 2006 world champion, was visibly fresher than Selby, perhaps feeling the effects of his marathon quarter-final win over Ronnie O'Sullivan, and quickly pounced on a sloppy safety by his opponent to seal the first frame. Selby levelled as Dott failed to convert a great chance as he missed an easy green off of its spot.

Undeterred, the Scot bounced back and claimed the third and fourth frames with a series of fine pots to mask some average positional play. Selby won an error-strewn fifth frame before Dott again pulled away with a battling break of 48.

A break of 93 ensured Dott would go into the next session with at least a two-frame lead but any hopes of a 6-2 advantage were firmly sidelined as Selby provided an entertaining finish to the session with a stunning clearance of 142. The 26-year-old looked relieved as he finished off the break with a regulation pot on the black and should be pleased with a scoreline which perhaps flatters his performance.

Neil Robertson continues to look like the man to beat at the Snooker World Championships after he came out of the first session of his semi-final against Allister Carter with a 6-2 lead.

Ever since last Friday, when Robertson plummeted to an 11-5 deficit in his last-16 match with Martin Gould, the Australian has been in ominous form - rattling off eight of the next nine frames to overcome the seemingly impossible challenge that he was faced with in that Gould encounter. In fact, including the Steve Davis quarter-final, Robertson had won 20 of his previous 26 frames going into Thursday's semi-final.

Nevertheless, the 28-year-old has never reached a World Championship final, and he started as nervously as his opponent before taking the first frame 60-7. A marvellous break of 124 then settled Robertson down, drawing an unusually raucous reaction from the Crucible crowd.

The Sheffield natives are undoubtedly excited at the increasing prospect of crowning a new world champion, and a further break of 91 only cemented Robertson's fine start as Carter watched from his chair. By the arrival of the first interval Carter, who beat Jamie Cope, Joe Perry and Shaun Murphy to reach the last four, would have been happy for the chance to clear his head with the score at 4-0.

The 2009 Welsh Open winner had gone through the emotional ringer of a late night 13-12 triumph over Murphy on Wednesday evening, and things got even worse for him when the players returned, with Robertson compiling efforts of 47 and 76 to take a 5-0 lead. The gap should have been six too as Robertson lined up a straight-forward red using the rest, but his miss allowed Carter his first frame and a foothold in the match.

Carter then had a chance to claw back to 5-2 when his opponent got an unfortunate kick on a red, but he missed an easy shot to the bottom-left pocket to hand Robertson his sixth frame of the match. Carter did recover some pride by taking the final frame with a tidy break of 69 but the Scot has plenty to do to overcome his rampant opponent.

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