SHEFFIELD (England), April 30: Scotland’s Graeme Dott beat world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-11 on Saturday to set up a world snooker championship final against Peter Ebdon. Tearful Englishman Peter Ebdon, winner in 2002 and runner-up in 1996, survived an almighty scare to book his place in the final with a nail-biting 17-16 win over Marco Fu of Hong Kong.

Dott, resuming 16-8 up after taking all eight frames in the third session, lost the first three before securing the frame he needed to avenge a final defeat to O'Sullivan two years ago.

“To get there twice you certainly have to be pretty good,”

Dott told reporters at The Crucible. “It's a fantastic achievement and I know that and I really want to win it.

“It's virtually impossible to fluke your way to a world final, it can't be done, any player knows that. There are so many long matches and you have to play the best players in the world over three days in the semifinal.”

But the 28-year-old was not surprised O’Sullivan failed to win a frame in a third session that propelled Dott to a 16-8 lead and saw the Rocket record a top break of just 34.

“I thought he played like that in patches against Ryan Day and Mark Williams but I think I put him under a lot pressure,” said Dott, who expects Ebdon to be favourite in th final.

“I think he missed because I made him miss. I played really solid match snooker,” he added.

O’Sullivan was honest in defeat, acknowledging that he had not played well enough to reach his third world final.

“I was pretty awful the whole match and deserved to get beat. I missed too many balls, never made enough breaks, I never scored at all, my safety was bad, my long potting was awful.

“That's not to take anything away from Graeme, he beat me comfortably. I just wasn't good enough,” he added.

Ebdon, now based in Dubai, saw Fu fight back from 15-9 to 15-15 and 16-16 before finally getting over the winning line with a gritty 54 break.

Fu won the first six frames of the session in a row as he compiled two centuries and four more breaks over 50. Ebdon edged ahead though and after Fu forced the decider sealed victory.

The best-of-35 frames final is played over four sessions, beginning on Sunday afternoon.

Saturday’s results:

Semifinals (best of 33 frames): Peter Ebdon (England) bt Marco Fu (Hong Kong) 17-16 (0-130, 76-55, 6-62, 92-59, 124-57, 103-28, 42-62, 81-17, 108-16, 5-61, 94-1, 75-38, 54-56, 101-1, 67-70, 122-0, 77-47, 66-1, 93-5, 8-75, 24-62, 80-8, 86-20, 65-74, 27-83, 1-141, 9-88, 0-98, 1-103, 73-0, 43-73, 89-13); Graeme Dott (Scotland) bt Ronnie O'Sullivan (England) 17-11 (121-0, 11-85, 95-8, 10-75, 14-76, 28-63, 40-73, 72-44, 67-47, 85-38, 72-23, 19-76, 33-66, 87-22, 0-124, 74-49, 92-0, 56-26, 117-6, 79-39, 73-15, 87-42, 64-25, 69-4, 16-97, 4-103, 16-58, 69-68).—Reuters