Snooker: Ken Doherty has moved a step closer to ending a five-year barren period by beating Graeme Dott 6-3 to reach the Malta Cup final at the Portomaso Hilton.
Doherty has not won a ranking title since capturing the 2001 Thailand Masters and was last in a final at the Crucible in 2003, when Mark Williams beat him 18-16 to deny him a second World Championship triumph.
The Dubliner has been out of sorts ever since that Sheffield defeat but returned to form in Malta and again showed glimpses of his best form to see off Dott, who finished runner-up to Stephen Hendry 12 months ago.
"Graeme is a gritty performer. He makes it tough and doesn't give you anything easy so you have to work for every point," Doherty said. "After I won my first frame I settled down and started to play quite well."
The opening exchanges were unattractively scrappy but Doherty constructed a run of 98 to win the fourth frame and lead 3-1.
Efforts of 50 and 44 made it 4-1 and a superbly crafted 119 two frames later put the 36-year-old 5-2 ahead.
Glaswegian Dott threw himself a lifeline by making 54 to close to 5-3 but Doherty controlled the ninth to reach the 17th ranking tournament final of his professional career and stay in the hunt for a sixth ranking trophy.
Doherty started the current season 11th in the rankings, his lowest position for 11 years.
"It's taken me some time to come back after losing in the world final," he said. "It knocked me back a bit because I climbed so far and didn't get the trophy.
"That was the last time I played consistently well. I knew I could come back because I was playing so well in practise but it wasn't coming out in matches."
Dott beat John Parrott, world champion Shaun Murphy and Robin Hull to reach the semi-finals but was scathing about the way he played.
"I was pathetic. My whole performance was abysmal," he said.
Doherty was waiting for the winner of the other semi-final between John Higgins and Dominic Dale.