Ken Doherty returned to winning ways at the £110,000 German Masters in Bingen yesterday. Doherty, who lost his Rothman's Grand Prix title four days ago going down 7-6 against Stephen Hendry, beat Stephen Lee 5-3 in the quarter-finals.
"Losing to Hendry was a big disappointment so it was important for me to come back like this," said the Dubliner. "I know I am playing well and I want to make the most of it."
Lee, who confidently brushed past Nottingham's Anthony Hamilton 5-1 in the first round, had the better of the early exchanges to lead 2-1 before Doherty began to fire.
Last year's world champion swiftly moved 3-2 ahead as he knocked in breaks of 71 and 56 while not conceding a single point for two straight frames. Doherty also led 57-10 at an advanced stage of the sixth but Lee rallied to eventually claim it with a brown to black clearance.
Lee, who has climbed to fourth in the provisional world rankings this season, also had a glorious opportunity to wipe out a sizeable deficit in the next. But with the colours ideally situated, Lee had the misfortune to suffer a massive kick on the last red.
It caused him to jaw an otherwise simple pot into a top corner pocket. Doherty scraped through on the green and comfortably won the eight with runs of 45 and 75 - his sixth half-century of the contest.
"I have to admit the kick really hurt Stephen and really helped me," said Doherty. "It was the turning point. Before that I thought I'd blown it."
Doherty goes forward to face John Parrott in the last four today. Parrott defeated John Higgins 5-3 in the £110,000 event.
Meanwhile, Stephen Hendry is on the brink of quitting the game after another dismal defeat. The six-time world champion crashed out the tournament after he was beaten 5-2 by Malta's Tony Drago. "If I carry on like this I'm seriously thinking of chucking it in at the end of the season."
Hendry was a picture of dejection afterwards. "It is just down to confidence. When I haven't got any I hate playing the game," said Hendry, whitewashed 9-0 by unknown Scot Marcus Campbell in the UK Championship three weeks ago. The last thing I want to do is take anything away from Tony. He played really well and deserved to win but my form just gets worse and worse."
Hendry, who travels to the Irish Open at the National Basketball Arena in Talleght next week, added: "I'll still keep practising, trying to solve the problem and I'll prepare properly for tournaments but I feel terrible about my game at the moment."
It appeared that Hendry had turned the corner when he edged Doherty 7-6 in the final of the Rothmans Malta Grand Prix on Sunday to capture the 67th title of his pro-career. But the unforced errors which have haunted him all year resurfaced as Drago sprinted to victory in just 76 minutes.
Drago, defeated in all of his previous 12 encounters with snooker's dominant force of the 1990s, said: "I've waited so long to finally break my duck against Stephen and I can tell you it is a great feeling. He was the only big name player I'd never beaten before. The great thing about this is that Hendry has just won a tournament in my country."
