McGill Sends Graeme Crashing
Anthony McGill, who turned 20 in February upset the form book to reach the final of the resurrected Scottish Professional Championship with a five-frames-to-three win against 2006 world champion Graeme Dott at the Lucky Break Snooker Club in Clydebank.
The result is not the ideal preparation for Dott, who breaks off his 2011 tilt at the Betfred.com World title against Mark King next week in Sheffield was far from his best and the youngster took full advantage.
Home advantage may also have played a part in the outcome as McGill set up a final clash with worl number one John Higgins.
Dott took the first frame which included a break of 57 before McGill levelled by taking the second.
In frame three McGill, who has risen to number 55 in the world during his first season on the professional tour, showed great character to come from behind and take the lead.
However, Dott showed that quality that has served him so well in the past to go in at the break level, with a long red to start off an 81 break to make it 2-2.
Dott came flying out of the traps after the mid-session interval, hitting a quick break of 51 to restore his lead but this match swung from end to end constantly and McGill pulled level immediately thanks to a break of 88.
McGill took the lead in the next before closing out the victory in the eighth with a run of 64.
Graeme was a frustrated figure after the match. He said, "I'm disappointed with the way I played. I'm disappointed with the state of my game going into the worlds.
“It's not where I want it to be and there were more mistakes tonight than in the last game. I'm running out of time and my game isn't near where I want it to be so it's a bit worrying. I'm nowhere near my best and its frustrating when you miss the amount of balls I missed tonight.
“Some of my play was good but it was too few and far between and you can't do it at this level let alone in the world championships”.
He acknowledged the quality of his opponent, saying, "He's going to be special. He never played well tonight and he got the result so he's going to be up there but he will need to play a lot better than he did tonight to beat John and he will have to be at his absolute best to win."
McGill was thrilled with the win and said, "Neither of us played at our best tonight but I made a nice 60 break at the end there to win it. You're never going to get it easy against Graeme and to be able to grind out a match against one of the top players in the world is just fantastic.
“Towards the end I made a couple of nice breaks and Graeme wasn't getting a run of the balls but I'm just thankful I managed to get the right breaks at the right time.”
His face lit up when asked about tomorrow's night big final. He said, "I can't wait to play him here in my own club. John is the best player in the world and it is absolutely great. The crowd will be great but hopefully they will give me the support I need, I'm the underdog and the local boy so hopefully they will be right behind me."
