Robertson finds his range to edge ahead overnight

AUSTRALIAN Neil Robertson began to enjoy his first visit to the Betfred.com World Championship final last night as he won all four frames before the mid-session interval to surge ahead of Graeme Dott.

Robertson was delighted when he discovered his mother, Alison, had jetted in from Melbourne for the match, setting off even before his semi-final against Ali Carter had finished.

It is a gamble which will pay off handsomely if her son today becomes the first player from outside the British Isles since Canadian Cliff Thorburn in 1980 to win the world title.

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There was an emotional meeting before the day's play began, and Alison savoured seeing her son hit back from 5-3 down to lead 9-7 overnight.

During the match, she expalined why she had made the long journey.

"It was a leap of faith," she said.

"We had to wait until we got here to find out that Neil had got to the final.

"My partner and I had made a promise that if Neil ever made it to the final then we'd come over to watch him."

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After beating Carter to reach the final, Robertson suggested he would check flight times to see if there was any chance of flying his mother in from the other side of the world – only to find a telephone message saying she had already departed.

Dott made a bright start to the final in a subdued Crucible.

The Scot's manager Pat Mooney had resigned earlier in the day from the board of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association.

And last year's world champion John Higgins was suspended by the WPBSA, following News Of The World allegations that Higgins and Mooney struck a deal to rig frames in return for money.

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Thirty-two-year-old Dott, who won the title in 2006, kept his composure in testing circumstances to open up a 5-3 lead, making breaks of 80, 52 and 57.

Robertson, in his first World Championship final, was not performing anywhere near his best, with just one break over 50.

But that changed in the evening as he had runs of 61, 90 and 79, and rocked Dott by pinching the third frame from a position where he needed a snooker.

He found that snooker but by taking pink off the final red the best he could manage was taking the frame to a respotted black.

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Robertson settled for that and potted the black, prompting a familiar exuberant celebration, not for the first time in the last fortnight.

There was a potential distraction for Robertson heading into the match, as his Oslo-based girlfriend was due to give birth today.

He was determined to stay focused on his bid for the title - and had also been told to stay in Sheffield by his Norwegian girlfriend Mille.

"Hopefully she can just hang on for a few days yet," Robertson said.

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"She's told me just to play and not worry about it too much. Being a first time, usually they're a little bit late.

"Every single part of my life right now is so exciting.

"We were talking about the due date, how wouldn't it be funny if I got to the final?

"Now it's happened, it's really strange. I haven't been thinking about it at all during my matches but it's obviously a fantastic time for me."

On Saturday, Robertson saw off Ali Carter 17-12, having led 15-9 overnight.

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He lost three of the first four frames, but his lead was so substantial there was no danger of it disappearing.

There was still no great cause for concern from Robertson's point of view when Carter reduced his lead to 15-11 with a break of 71.

At 44-42 ahead in the next frame Carter got probably the fluke of the tournament to get off the mark, when after missing a red to a top corner pocket the ball travelled up the table, off baulk and side cushions before meeting the white again and bouncing into the right centre pocket.

But Robertson was soon back in the frame, and the Australian snaffled up the chance when Carter swerved past the black to hit yellow but left it. He cleared from yellow to pink meaning Carter had to win all six remaining frames, only taking one more before Robertson prevailed.

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In the other sem-final, Dott led opponent Mark Selby 14-10 at the start of the session but the 32-year-old from Larkhall, Glasgow, lost the first three frames of the evening.

Dott gave himself some breathing space by taking the next with a break of 47, but Selby again narrowed the gap.

Then came a 45-minute frame, which Dott won 87-45 with a highest break of just 26.

That put him just one frame from victory and another break of 47 gave Dott control of the next. Selby soon needed a handful of snookers, and they would not come. When Dott fired in the final red, that was it.