Doherty - in action again today.
DOHERTY POISED FOR MORE DRAMA
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Ken Doherty and drama have gone hand-in-hand at the Embassy World Championship
so far and there will be plenty of sweaty palms again among his supporters in
Sheffield this afternoon.
In the space of two hours last night, Doherty went from the brink of the
biggest ever Crucible quarter-final victory to the precipice of the greatest
ever Crucible collapse.
And it would take a brave man to predict the outcome of his monumental match
against brave Scot John Higgins.
Wishaw wizard Higgins has already saved face by storming back from 10-0 down
to 10-6.
The 27-year-old world number four still requires seven of the remaining nine
frames to achieve the finest recovery seen since the championships moved to
Sheffield in 1977.
Dennis Taylor stunned Steve Davis 18-17 in the 1985 final after being 7-0
behind.
And 1995 world finalist Nigel Bond once defeated Canadian Cliff Thorburn 10-9
having been 9-2 down.
But to deny Doherty a place in the semi-finals would be an astonishing feat.
The end of the penultimate session came just at the right time for the worried
Irishman.
He conceded two of the last three frames on the pink and the 16th frame on the
black after being 57-0 in front.
Had the contest gone on, Higgins would probably have made greater in-roads
into his arrears.
As it is, Dubliner Doherty has plenty of time to compose himself before going
out to do battle.
At the back of his mind, though, will be a worrying tendency to go the
distance in many of his matches this season.
He defeated Graeme Dott 13-12 in the second round after black-balling Shaun
Murphy to a 10-9 defeat in the last 32.
In addition, he lost 10-9 to Mark Williams in this season's UK Championship
final and went down in deciding frames to Mark Selby in the Scottish Open, Dave
Harold in the Irish Masters, Chris Small in the British Open and Jimmy White in
the Regal Masters.
So, Higgins, who could have been forgiven for giving up all hope at 10-0,
still has some hope of squeezing more drama out of the match.
For a third time this week Higgins might have made his first ever world
championship maximum.
He failed narrowly twice against Sean Storey in his last game and potted 15
reds and 14 blacks against Doherty in frame 11 - ironically his first frame win
of the match.
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