Doherty in his seat as Williams dominates (Getty Images)
DOHERTY NEEDS CRUCIBLE MIRACLE
By John Curtis PA Sport
Click here for full scoreboard
Ken Doherty will have to manufacture a comeback that would surpass even his
semi-final success over Paul Hunter if he is to deny Mark Williams a second
Embassy World Championship crown at The Crucible Theatre.
Williams will go into the second day of the best-of-35-frame final holding a
formidable-looking 11-5 advantage over the 1997 champion.
Doherty described his revival from 15-9 down to defeat Hunter 17-16 as "the
greatest recovery of my career" but it is difficult to imagine him repeating
that against Williams, who is now back at number one in the world rankings.
Williams has been the best player on show during the past fortnight and, as in
his semi-final success over Stephen Lee, he made sure of quickly imprinting his
authority on proceedings by winning the first session 7-1.
Doherty may be made of sterner stuff, as demonstrated not only against Hunter
but in last frame wins against Shaun Murphy (10-9) and Graham Dott (13-12).
He showed that mettle again when, after trailing 10-2 at the mid session
interval, he managed to win three of the remaining four frames.
But Williams is unlikely to buckle in the same way as Hunter, a rookie in
terms of playing in the latter stages of snooker's blue riband competition.
The statistics show that he needs to win just seven of the remaining 19 frames
to collect the £270,000 first prize.
That would also enable Williams to emulate Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry in
winning the triple crown of the UK Championship, The Masters and the world title
in the same season.
Doherty had to make early inroads in the evening session and he gave himself a
glimmer of a hope by taking the first frame with the aid of a run of 47 to the
final blue.
But it was a false dawn for the 33-year-old, who went into the final having
figured in a mind-sapping 98 frames during the competition compared to the 72 of
Williams who has effortlessly waltzed through to the final.
Doherty paid the penalty for missing a long red in the next and he had to stay
in his chair as Williams put together a 118 clearance to the black.
Breaks of 40 and 31 were sufficient to give Williams the next and then a 101
in frame 12 left him in total command at the interval.
But Doherty showed that Williams will have to earn his success when he came
back into the arena and a 79 break reduced the deficit to 10-3.
Then in the next he found himself trailing 69-0 with just five reds left but
manufactured the snooker he needed and then cleared the last four colours to win
70-69.
There were no significant breaks in the 15th frame with Williams accumulating
steadily as Doherty failed to trouble the scorers.
But the Dubliner again came from behind in the last frame of the session after
Williams had missed a relatively easy brown when leading 49-4.
Doherty held his nerve and a 50 clearance to the black ensured he shared the
honours in the evening session but has a mountain to climb on Monday.
Click here to send us your sporting feedback
