SCOTT DONALDSON paid tribute to his dad after overcoming immense grief to complete a stunning comeback at the UK Snooker Championship qualifying.
The 31-year-old was 5-0 down to Stuart Bingham and staring at an exit but triumphed 6-5 in a remarkable turnaround in Wigan just one month after losing his father, Hector.
Speaking afterwards to the World Snooker Tour, Donaldson spoke emotionally about dealing with his death.
Talking through the tears, he said: “It’s my dad. He died last month.
“I lost my dad five hours after I qualified for the national championship.
“There’s just no way I’m winning that match normally.
“I can’t believe it, honestly. Yeah, I don’t know what to say.
“Just, it was my dad.”
Donaldson is now through the main event at the Barbican Centre, York, which starts over the weekend.
He is convinced that his dad helped him get there. The Perth potter told reporters at the event: “My dad loved watching me play.
“In my mind, he’s still there watching me play. I just don’t know where he is right now.
“I just got so much good luck at the end, which was very unusual, and I think dad was doing something.”
He will continue to play with the memory of his dad on his mind and even went to the Scottish Open qualifiers two days after his funeral.
He added: “We always used to travel to York together for the UK Championship so that’s going to be tough.
“He was actually meant to come to Belfast with me a month ago [for the Northern Ireland Open] and he passed a couple of weeks before.”
Donaldson revealed to BBC Sport that his dad also had flights and a hotel booked for the ranking tournament.
He said: “I don’t know how I managed to get three frames off Wu Yize.
“Since then, I’ve kind of been okay because I know he would always want me to just do my stuff.”
The world No52 continued: “I’m playing and I’m looking to see where is he sitting and obviously he’s nowhere.
“Right now it’s hard for me to think about anything to do with snooker.
“When I’m out there I’m alright because I’m used to being like a robot when I’m out there.
“That’s the value of this game.
“My wife will still be with me, she’s everything to me.”
On how he turned the match around, Donaldson said: “The run of the ball I had in the last three fames, it was incredible.
“Stuart must be sick, he had chances.
“At the very end when I potted match ball, I thought ‘what is going on here?’
“This game is stupid, you can go from feeling nothing, then at the end felt I could pot anything on the table.”
