Snooker: Maguire and Dott storm back to win

GRAEME Dott and Stephen Maguire both recovered from two frames down to reach the last 16 of the Bank of Beijing China Open.

Dott fell 2-0 behind against German Masters runner-up Marco Fu before bouncing back to record a 5-3 victory, with Maguire sealing an identical win over Michael Holt, who looked to be on course for victory success after taking a 3-1 lead. Hong Kong’s Fu won the first two frames with a top break of 54, but Dott found a run of 76 as he won five of the next six to progress.

The Scot, who will now face Peter Ebdon or Marcus Campbell in the last 16, said: “I hate losing so I never give up. It’s hard to sleep when you get to China because of the jet lag. I’ll just practise before my next match and hope that my game is good.”

Fellow Scot Maguire could only look on as Holt compiled breaks of 105 and 101 en route to winning three of the first four frames, although the former UK Champion hit back to triumph after the interval. “It wasn’t like I had missed loads of chances, so I just tried to keep it a bit tighter and take the chances that came along,” he said.

Meanwhile, Betfair will sponsor this season’s World Championship.