Dott To Face Williams In Telford

Graeme Dott earned a match with fellow former World Champion Mark Williams in the final stages of the Pukka Pies UK Championship thanks to a hard-fought 9-5 victory over Craig Steadman in the last qualifying round.

Larkhall's Dott survived "enormous pressure" as he pulled away from 5-5 to deny Lancashire's Steadman a first trip to a pro circuit venue. The opening session of the TV stages, next Saturday at 1pm, will see Dott face Williams at the International Centre in Telford.

Steadman looked strong when he made a 104 to tie the match after ten frames, but Dott reeled off the last four with breaks of 45, 53, 57 and 84.

"I played pretty well in the second session, although the scoreline flatters me a bit," said 32-year-old Dott, who dropped out of the top 16 last season after a sequence of bad results. "It's hard to judge your form on how you play at the qualifiers, because you're just so happy to win regardless of how you play.

"The pressure here is enormous so it's great to be able to go to Telford and relax. If I play well, there's no one in the top 16 who will want to play me. I lost 9-7 to Mark Williams in the second round last year, it's wasn't a great game. Hopefully this time it will be a better match and I'll come out on top," added Dott, who reached the UK semi-finals in the same year that he won the World title - 2006.

Also playing in Saturday's opening session will be Gerard Greene and defending champion Shaun Murphy, as Greene saw off Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 9-5. The Kent-based player won the first two frames of the afternoon session to go 6-4 up, then Un-Nooh made a 138 total clearance to pull one back. But Greene made his experience count as he added the next three frames with runs of 67, 56 and 70.

"I've played Shaun twice and it's 1-1 - he's obviously a great player but I'm not bothered who I play," said Greene. "It would be nice to play well on TV and show people that I can actually pot a ball."

Michael Holt survived a brief rally from Dominic Dale to score a 9-4 success and set up a match with Stephen Maguire. Welshman Dale won three frames on the spin with a top run of 79 to get to 7-4, but Holt made a 62 then added a scrappy 13th frame to seal the result.

"I expected him to come back a bit, but I knew I would get chances eventually," said Nottingham's Holt. "I seem to have a reputation for losing big leads and I don't know why. It's only ever happened to me a few times. I guess it's because it's happened once or twice on the big stage and people have remembered those games. But I bet my record of converting big leads into wins is pretty good, compared to the other players. Last season I won all of my first round matches in ranking events, and there's a lot of pressure on those."

Stuart Bingham eased to a 9-2 victory over Jimmie Michie, assisted by breaks of 95, 141 and 67. "I'm trying to keep my top 32 place and every match is a pint of blood, so it was nice to play well and win easily," said Bingham, who now faces Joe Perry. "I owe Joe because he beat me in the quarters of the UK in 2005, and also beat me 13-9 at the Crucible last year - if I'd won that match I would have been in the top 16."

Redcar's Mike Dunn beat Joe Swail by the same scoreline to earn a meeting with Ding Junhui. "The result flattered me a bit as I did have the run of the ball," admitted Dunn, whose top break was 92. "The UK and the World are special - they're the ones you want to do well in."

Peter Lines reached his first venue in eight years with a 9-6 defeat of Nigel Bond. Lines made a 76, the highest break of the match, to go 8-6 ahead, then came from 60-12 behind in the next to take the match with a brilliant 51 clearance.

"I'm delighted to be back and determined to enjoy it," said Lines, whose last venue was the 2001 British Open in Newcastle. The 39-year-old from Leeds, who will play Marco Fu in Telford, added: "Two years ago I started working with Steve Prest and he brought my game back. He's gone now but I owe this all to him."

Trowbridge's Stephen Lee got the better of the all-west country battle with Gloucester's Robert Milkins. Lee made two centuries in the first session, 129 and 110, but looked in danger of defeat when he trailed 7-5. He then won three scrappy frames before finishing in style with a run of 90.

Rory McLeod, winner of the Masters qualifying tournament, kept his superb form going by coming from 7-6 down to beat Fergal O'Brien 9-7, closing with runs of 104, 50 and 102.