GRAEME Dott fell agonisingly short of the second-biggest comeback in World Snooker Championship history and claims a lack of sleep is running his career.

World champion back in 2006, Dott was on course for a heavy defeat at the Crucible Theatre when he trailed Stuart Bingham 8-1 at the conclusion of the first session of their best-of-19 first-round encounter.

But the Scot showed the resilience he has become renowned for as breaks of 114, 70 and 77 narrowed the deficit to 8-4 before 2015 world champion Bingham moved within one frame of victory at 9-4.

Yet Dott then won five on the spin, including being awarded frame 16 after Bingham fouled three times consecutively when a red was visible, to level proceedings at 9-9.

Both men had chances in the late-night decider but the Englishman eventually had enough to edge over the line 10-9 and set up a second-round clash with four-time world champion John Higgins.

And while proud of the fight he showed, Dott insists an ongoing battle with sleep deprivation – something he is stating publicly for the first time – mean he is fighting an uphill battle every time he takes to the baize.

“Between sessions, I didn’t do anything special,” said Dott, when asked what sparked the turnaround. “I laid in my bed and tried to sleep, which I didn’t manage because I’ve got serious problems with my sleep.

“It’s ruining my career. It’s getting to the stage that I’m really struggling with it.

“You can’t put into words how hard it is and how bad it is. Why my form can go from really good one day to really bad the next is obvious.

“I’ve never really mentioned it to the media before but I’ve lost lots of matches that I know is to do with the lack of sleep.

“It’s hard and it doesn’t matter how much I sleep – I don’t get any benefit from sleep, so I’m continuously tired.

“It’s getting worse, now I’m struggling to even nap. I’m lucky if I get even two hours. It’s hard enough for anyone to do their job if they’ve had a bad night but I’m having a bad night, night after night after night.

“And the standard that we need to play at and concentrate on makes it doubly hard for me.”

Dennis Taylor coming from 8-0 down to beat Steve Davis in the iconic 1985 final is the only time someone has overturned a deficit of more than seven frames in Crucible history.

If Dott had completed his fightback, it wouldn’t have quite matched that feat but the 41-year-old still insists it would’ve been ‘biblical’ to accomplish it.

“You don’t really think you’re going to win but I don’t like it when people say ‘you’re not under any pressure, so you can play well’ – that doesn’t wash with me,” added Dott.

“If you’re not under any pressure, you won’t play well. You need to be nervous.

“I’m proud that I came back – I’ve done practically everything you can do here (at the Crucible) but that would have been biblical if I’d won that!”

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