Graeme Dott qualifies for Crucible, but Ken Doherty out

With the draw for the final 32 to be made on Thursday ahead of the start of this year's 17-day event on Saturday morning, 2006 champion Graeme Dott showed his class with a fighting 10-7 win over Yu Delu.

Dott is ranked 19th in the world, but was unhappy with World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn about the fairness of having to come through three rounds of qualifying against Mark Owens, Fraser Patrick and Yu in a qualifying field of 128 players.

"Of course it's not fair," said Dott. "You've got debates on TV with politicians, but if you had a debate between Barry Hearn and me, and the public actually heard what I'm trying to say, how could anybody think it's fair that Michael White finishes 16th and he's three rounds behind the guy at 15th?

"I'd take Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round, why not? Nobody's going to want to draw me."

But 1997 winner Ken Doherty saw his hopes dashed in a 10-3 defeat to Mark Davis. Ireland's Doherty, 45, was 8-1 down overnight, and England's Davis wasted little effort in securing his place in the tournament proper.

"The crowd there is a very special feeling and when you miss out it does hurt," said Doherty.

"I've had some good times and hopefully I will make one more appearance before I hang up the cue.

"It's getting more difficult every year but I still love playing and competing."

Two-times Crucible finalist and 2012 semi-finalist Matthew Stevens is back in the event after missing out last year. He was a 10-5 winner over Northern Ireland's Joe Swail.

Last year's quarter-finalist Alan McManus, the 1994 Masters champion, was a 10-6 winner over Mitchell Mann while compatriot Anthony McGill completed a 10-9 win over Mark King.

But another Scot in the form of Jamie Burnett suffered a 10-6 defeat to Craig Steadman.

The 16 qualifiers can be drawn against the top 16 seeds in the draw for the first round. Defending champion Mark Selby opens the tournament on Saturday morning with the 32 players chasing a record first prize of £300,000.

CRAIG STEADMAN 10-6 JAMIE BURNETT

MARK KING 9-10 ANTHONY MCGILL

ADAM DUFFY 8-10 JAMIE JONES.

MITCHELL MANN 6-10 ALAN MCMANUS

RYAN DAY 10-6 JAK JONES

LI HANG 9-10 STUART CARRINGTON

ROBIN HULL 10-4 IGOR FIGUEIREDO

YU DE LU 7-10 GRAEME DOTT

MARK DAVIS 10-3 KEN DOHERTY

MATTHEW STEVENS 10-5 JOE SWAIL

FERGAL O'BRIEN 9-10 KURT MAFLIN

ZHANG ANDA 10-9 LIANG WENBO

XIAO GUODON 9-10 JIMMY ROBERTSON

ROBBIE WILLIAMS 10-5 MICHAEL HOLT

MATTHEW SELT 10-8 TOM FORD

ANDREW HIGGINSON 9-10 ROBERT MILKINS