Graeme Dott reached his first ranking event final in eight years by beating Shaun Murphy 6-4 in the semi-finals of the D88 German Masters.

Scotland’s 40-year-old Dott played some superb snooker to get through to his first ranking final since he lost to Neil Robertson in the 2010 World Championship final. On Sunday in Berlin he’ll face Judd Trump or Mark Williams over 17 frames for the £80,000 top prize. World number 28 Dott will be aiming for his third ranking title having won the World Championship in 2006 and the China Open the following year.

Prior to this week, Dott had not gone beyond the last 16 of a ranking event this season, though he did show signs of his best form in a 6-2 win over Trump in the last 32 of the UK Championship.

A high quality contest against Murphy featured 11 breaks over 50 in the ten frames. Dott took the first with a run of 66 then Murphy levelled with a 98. Larkhall’s Dott regained the lead with a 78 then Murphy’s 96 made it 2-2 at the interval.

Once again Dott edged ahead, thanks to a break of 69, only for world number six Murphy to take the next two with 55 and 69 to lead 4-3. England’s Murphy was first among the balls in frame eight but broke down on 42 and his opponent made a 74 clearance.

The ninth followed a similar pattern as Murphy made 52 then Dott cleared with 66 to go 5-4 up. And the Pocket Dynamo was whirring at top speed in the tenth with a match-winning 121.