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Robertson fends off Dott challenge to take World crown

Neil Robertson battled to a stirring win over Graeme Dott © Getty Images

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Neil Robertson held off a dogged challenge from Graeme Dott to claim the World Championship at the Crucible in a match that finished in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Robertson led 9-7 overnight and kept his nose in front throughout Monday's final two sessions to clinch an 18-13 win.

The quality was not high, but with the ultimate prize in snooker at stake it was far from surprising that the two players found compiling big breaks a problem.

The two scrapped it out throughout an afternoon session that was ended two frames early on account of the time it took the pair to play six frames. Dott took the final frame of the afternoon session with a 118, the first ton of the match, to sit at 12-10 behind.

The evening session followed a similar path to the play in the afternoon, as Dott took a scrappy first frame to cut the deficit to one but he made mistakes in the next and this allowed Robertson to keep his nose in front. The attritional nature of the contest continued in the next as Dott knocked in a 57 but it took him another bite to close out the frame.

Robertson took the frame before the mid-session interval to move two ahead and the Australian battled his way through the 27th. Both players made a host of mistakes but Robertson knocked in a pressure pink, which led to a roar of elation.

The Australian had a great chance to move within two frames of victory but inexplicably left a black in the jaws and Dott stepped in and showed nerves of steel to cut the deficit to two frames at 15-13.

But Robertson simply refused to allow Dott to gain any momentum as he ground out a 40 break and then got the better of a protracted safety battle to win a 29th frame that took over 50 minutes to complete.

The clock had ticked past midnight at this point and both players were showing signs of fatigue, but Robertson strung together a couple of solid contributions to move within one frame of victory.

Dott was in the last-chance saloon and, as had been the case throughout Monday's two sessions, he did not get the run of the balls as he narrowly missed a long red only to see it kiss the cue ball - allowing Robertson an easy starter.

Robertson did not cash in but got in again when rolling in a superb red into the middle. He needed a third chance to seal victory, but did so emphatically by knocking in a plant into the middle. He compiled enough points to seal victory and it sparked emotional scenes as his mother, who had flown in from Australia at the weekend, joined him on the floor for a long embrace.

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