Neil Robertson became the first Australian to triumph at the Crucible as he beat Graeme Dott 18-13 to become world snooker champion.
Australian makes history with tough Crucible win over Scotsman
Neil Robertson became the first Australian to triumph at the Crucible as he beat Graeme Dott 18-13 to become world snooker champion.
The likeable 28-year-old with the scruffy blond barnet suggested earlier in the championship he was not a fan of morning starts, but evidently morning finishes are more his thing.
The match finished at 12:54am, matching the latest finish - John Higgins completed his victory over Mark Selby at at the same time in 2007.
As he became the first champion from outside the British Isles since Canada's Cliff Thorburn in 1980, Robertson wrapped himself in an Australian flag and saluted the crowd before lifting the trophy.
Robertson and Larkhall cueman Dott had managed to squeeze in just six of their scheduled eight frames during the afternoon, and that left up to 13 to contest in the evening.
Gruelling
Dott moved from 9-7 to 12-10 as the afternoon action crawled along, before the players were called off shortly after 6pm. That allowed them to have a break before the resumption at 8pm.
Dott had ended the afternoon session on a high with the first century of the final, a satisfying 112.
But anyone hoping for a swift resolution to the match and an early getaway received a reality check when the first frame of the evening lasted 26 minutes, eventually going Dott's way.
Robertson was more clinical in the next, with breaks of 55 and 51 restoring his two-frame cushion.
However Dott came back at him again, and after a journey which began in the final qualifying round he was sure to keep battling for the chance to land his second world title.
Interval
Dott got ahead in the frame which followed the interval but there then followed perhaps the most dreary spell of the match, spells of safety interjected with the occasional pot.
The Scot had chances to pinch it, notably when Robertson left the blue for him over the green pocket.
But Dott could not get from blue to pink, or at least did not try to. Robertson sank it, and that took him three frames clear.
Quite predictably Dott won the following frame to close to 15-13, but it was his last.
Robertson was below his best for much of the match but it hardly mattered as he wrapped up victory with a break of 53.
His mother joined him on the theatre floor, and he kissed the trophy before performing a lap of honour and posing with the flag again.
