World number one Ronnie O'Sullivan of England was locked at 8-8 with Scotland's Graeme Dott in the semi-finals of the world championship yesterday.

O'Sullivan, who resumed with a 5-3 advantage, briefly lost the lead as Dott won the opening three frames of the session.

There was controversy after the 14th frame, with the score at 7-7, when O'Sullivan appeared to remove the tip from his cue. That resulted in a break lasting 15 minutes, which allowed O'Sullivan to put on a new tip.

O'Sullivan told event director Mike Ganley that the tip had been coming off and Ganley was forced to accept his explanation as TV evidence was inconclusive. The change did not affect O'Sullivan, however, as he compiled a break of 124 after the re-start.

Dott, who responded with a break of 74 to make it all-square, showed his displeasure by turning away from O'Sullivan as the pair shook hands before leaving the arena.

Other semi-final: P. Ebdon leads M. Fu 13-9.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.