KEN DOHERTY (lreland)

World ranking: 4

Age: 29

World Championship best: Winner (1997)

Best ranking event performance: Winner two tournaments - Regal Welsh 1993; Embassy World Championship 1997

1998/99 ranking form: Grand Prix - R2, UK - R3, Irish - QF, Welsh - R1, Scottish - SF, Thailand - QF, China - QF, British R2.

Won his first Embassy World Championship title when beating defending champion Stephen Hendry 18-12 in the 1997 final.

It was by the same score that he lost his title to John Higgins 12 months later.

He was the world amateur champion in 1989 and in 1990-91, turned professional - reaching the final stages of the World Championship, losing 10-8 to Steve Davis in the first round.

Won his first ranking tournament in 1993, the Regal Welsh Open, and although he skippered Ireland to victory in the Castrol-Honda World Cup in Bangkok, he had to wait four years for his next individual success.

An ardent Manchester United supporter, he later had the honour of parading the trophy in front of the Old Trafford faithful.

As if to contradict the old adage that snooker is a sign of a misspent youth, he has amassed five A levels in Spanish, French, History, English and Chemistry.

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