SNOOKER Irish Masters: Ken Doherty's hopes that his first-round win over Barry Pinches might trigger a transformation in his season were blown away at Citywest yesterday. The world number seven had a highest break of only 16 during a 5-0 defeat by Gerard Greene in the second round of the Irish Masters.
Greene, who is from Kent but declared for Northern Ireland through his parents, won a scrappy opening frame. He raced through the next three with breaks of 74 and 75 to lead 4-0 at the interval. By adding the next when play resumed, Greene administered only the fourth ranking event whitewash of Doherty's career, and his first since December 2000.
"I should have won the first but I had a miscue on one shot and a kick on another and it cost me the frame. After that the guy never missed," reflected the Dubliner, who totalled only 62 points to Greene's 381. "I'm just shell-shocked really."
Greene was very satisfied with a performance which secured the fourth major quarter-final appearance of his career. "Ken missed a few early on and I think that did his confidence in. I was pretty much in control after that" he said. "The last time I beat him was probably the best I've ever played, so I took that into the match with me and it helped."
Doherty's elimination leaves him battling to retain his top-16 place at the end of the season, with only the China Open and World Championship to come.
Meanwhile, Michael Judge sat out a Stephen Lee break of 96 in the opening frame, and later trailed 3-1 at the interval. From there he battled back to 3-3, but Lee ran 92 to win the next and closed out the match in frame eight.
"When I got back level I was fully confident of winning, but in the next two frames Stephen played his best snooker" said Judge. "He looked under pressure so fair play to him. I seem to play well at the venues but struggle in qualifying, losing to players I should be beating" he added.
Stephen Hendry led 4-2 at one stage against Steve Davis, but needed a break of 93 to scrape through 5-4. Hendry will now play Matthew Stevens after the Welshman beat Ian McCulloch 5-1.
