Dott of bother as Pettman run continues

Stuart Pettman continued his superb run in the China Open, causing another upset by overcoming Graeme Dott to make his first ranking tournament semi-final.

Pettman followed up his defeat of Ali Carter in the second round by completing a scrappy 5-2 victory against Dott, the 2006 world champion.

He stormed into a 4-0 lead before Dott, who also took the China Open title two years ago, pulled two frames back, but Pettman held his nerve to close the match out.

Having never gone beyond the last 16 in a ranking event before in his 17-year career, Pettman now faces a semi-final against Peter Ebdon, who put another Scot to the sword on Friday morning in the form of Stephen Hendry.

Ebdon maintained his bid for a return to the top 16 with a comprehensive 5-1 victory over Hendry, the seven-time world champion who continues to struggle after a poor season.

The Englishman has also endured a tough time of late but rediscovered his touch here, taking an aggressive approach that saw him race into a two-frame lead.

The third was a tight affair until Hendry misjudged a safety shot, allowing Ebdon to pot the necessary balls to make it 3-0, and a break of 88 was all it required for the Dubai-based player to take the fourth.

Hendry finally got some form together after the restart with a 129 to bring the match back to 4-1 but it was only a temporary respite, and Ebdon had soon taken the sixth with a series of mini-breaks to seal his place in the semi-finals.