The former world champion Ken Doherty trudged out of Preston Guild Hall last night after a shock 5-3 defeat by Shokat Ali ended his interest in the £370,000 snooker Grand Prix at the secondround stage.

Doherty, who fancied his chances of an extended run in the opening world ranking tournament of the season, suffered the same fate as Jimmy White when he found the safety first approach of Pakistani Ali impossible to combat.

Doherty said: "With my experience I should be able to deal with players who are a lot slower than me, but tonight that wasn't the case. When I looked at the draw I realised a lot of the top players had already been eliminated and I thought I had a great chance of going a long way. It just shows the dangers of looking too far ahead."