DOHERTY HOLDS OFF HIGGINS
Ken Doherty reached the semi-finals of the Embassy World Championship for the
first time in five years on Wednesday afternoon and then laughed: "I could just see the
headlines had I lost."
In the match of the tournament so far Doherty won 10 frames in a row, lost
seven without reply but ended up beating Scotsman John Higgins 13-8 after a
memorable contest.
And the victorious Dubliner said afterwards: "It would have been the biggest
collapse since the Wall Street crash had I not won that game.
"'Doherty collapses like a cheap tent' would have been another headline I'm
sure," grinned the world number five.
"It was certainly twitchy bum time, as Sir Alex Ferguson might say," added
Doherty, who now plays defending champion Peter Ebdon or Paul Hunter in order to
reach the final for the third time in his career.
"I couldn't sleep a wink after last night's session," admitted the 1997
Crucible winner who has been through the whole gamut of emotions in his first
three games.
"At 10-0 I had a big smile on my face but when it was 10-6 a bear wouldn't
have hugged me."
When Higgins won the opening frame of today's final session to close the gap
to 10-7, Doherty really began to fear the worst.
But he then conjured up one of the best breaks of his career to calm the
nerves and break Higgins' resolve.
At 56-0 up Higgins went in-off, Doherty fired in a red from distance and
compiled a brilliant 63 clearance to win his first frame since 7.30pm on Tuesday
evening.
Doherty then dominated the 19th frame and although Higgins fired in 82 for
12-8 there wasn't to be another comeback.
When the game restarted after the mid-session interval Doherty was in first
with 55 and that sealed his place in the semis.
He continued: "I couldn't believe I was 10-0 up against someone like John. I
was squinting at the scoreline and thinking 'this is mind boggling'.
"The first eight frames were probably the best I've ever played and that gave
me some great confidence.
"I've never played that well against a top player for so long - not even when
I won the title in 1997.
"But from 10-0 John began to nick frames that I'd been doing. Luckily for me
the break last night came just at the right time.
"Had it gone on I'm sure it would only have got worse and worse.
"The frame to go 11-7 was massive because it gave me the belief to go on and
finish the job. Had John pulled it back to 10-8 I'm not sure what might have
happened."
Higgins agreed it was a pivotal frame. "It knocked the wind out of my sails
and I never came back," he admitted.
"The fourth frame was also very important. Even though it was early in the
game, I should have gone 3-1 but Ken made a great clearance for 4-0.
"And for 8-0 he played as well as I have ever seen him. It was a bit of a
hammering.
"When you are so far behind you're just trying to win a frame and avoid the
whitewash.
"But at 10-2 I thought if I could win three of the last four frames, I might
have a chance.
"I managed to take all four and at 10-6 I was really pleased.
"I was trying not to look at the scoreboard today but in the end I left
myself too much to do.
"And if Ken plays like that then he has every chance of winning the
tournament.
"As for me it's been a bad season. Two finals isn't good enough and I will go
away, work harder and hopefully come back stronger next season."
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