Dott eliminated as Ding moves on

Graeme Dott, world champion in 2006, suffered his second consecutive first round defeat at The Crucible as he was beaten 10-7 by Joe Perry.

It's been a calamitous season for Dott since he reached the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters back in August... he has not won any of his 16 matches since then. The Scot has reportedly been suffering from depression and considered pulling out of this tournament, but decided last week to compete at Sheffield.

Dott battled hard against Perry but eventually succumbed. He is sure to drop well down from his current official ranking of no.2.

Perry, by contrast, has had a strong season and is in with a chance of a top 16 berth next term. He goes through to the last 16 to face Stuart Bingham, with every hope of reaching the quarter-finals for the second time.

Dott beat Peter Ebdon in the final two years ago but lost to Ian McCulloch in the opening round last year.

Meanwhile, Ding Junhui kept his cool in the deciding frame to score a 10-9 win over Marco Fu in a gripping first round match.

Ding's temperament has occasionally been called into question, particularly when he lost 10-2 to Ronnie O'Sullivan on his Crucible debut last year.

But this week he showed real battling qualities.

He lost five frames in a row from 5-1 up, but kept in touch with Fu in the finishing stretch and played a strong final frame, closing with a break of 76.

Ding now faces Stephen Hendry in arguably the tie of the second round, and the 21-year-old still has the chance to eclipse Hendry as the youngest ever winner of snooker's biggest title.

First round results: Ding bt Fu 10-9; Williams bt Davis 10-3; Perry bt Dott 10-7.