Ken Doherty kept alive his hopes of a second World Championship title with a remarkable comeback in his quarter-final against Stephen Hendry in Sheffield last night. The Irishman finished the second session of the match at 8-8 and has every chance when the match plays to a finish this afternoon.
Doherty completed an amazing turnaround by winning the final four frames of the last night's session to move all square.
After watching a dominant Hendry forge clear - the pair were tied 4-4 after the first session - early on last night, the Irishman kept his composure and found a rich vein of potting form, firing breaks of 120 and 80.
Hendry had fired in the highest break of the championship in the first session but had to fight hard to keep pace with Doherty at that stage.
The Scot also missed out on a maximum in that session. Hendry had potted 15 reds and 14 blacks in frame eight before a bad contact on the black brought the break to a halt at 113.
Earlier, he had rattled in a 141 in frame six to eclipse the previous best mark of 136, held jointly by John Higgins and Stephen Lee.
But, Doherty had proved more than a match for the seven-time world champion as he had opened with breaks of 64 and 76 to take a 2-0 lead.
Meanwhile, defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan will be looking for a big improvement when he resumes his quarter-final clash with Stephen Lee this morning.
O'Sullivan conceded the final three frames of yesterday's first session to tie the match at 4-4 overnight.
Many people expected the pair to race out of the blocks at a fast and furious pace but the match began slowly as tactics dominated the opening two frames. A break of 36 won O'Sullivan a scrappy first frame, before a more fluent knock of 90 doubled his advantage.
Lee controlled the third frame before missing the black. However, O'Sullivan left him a long pot into the corner and Lee made amends. The fourth was another closely-contested affair, but O'Sullivan prevailed to take a 3-1 lead into the mid-session interval.
The 26-year-old was clearly unhappy with the way things had gone - but both players also struggled to find their best form after the break. O'Sullivan stretched his lead to three frames with a 63 break, but a missed green in the next allowed Lee to pull one back.
Lee looked a picture of concentration in the seventh frame as he rattled in a break of 119 to reduce the deficit to one. The last frame was another scrappy affair which Lee clinched to level.
In the other match, Peter Ebdon leads Anthony Hamilton 6-2 after an entertaining session. Ebdon made a confident start to the afternoon session and a break of 80 was good enough to take the opening frame.
Hamilton responded with a break of 66 before a frame-winning 109 moved him ahead. The 30-year-old split the reds perfectly with a stun shot and was in with a chance of a 143 clearance - the highest is Stephen Hendry's 141 - before missing the black after the final red.
Ebdon responded with a break of 108 to level at 2-2 going into the interval and carried on where he left off after the resumption and another well-constructed break of 83 edged him ahead.
QUARTER-FINALS
(4) K Doherty (Irl) and (5) S Hendry (Sco) level at 8-8. Frame scores (Doherty first): 77-0 (64) 86-5 (76) 35-82 (81) 10-92 (92) 95-5 (82) 0-141 (141) 83-0 (82) 0-113 (113) 16-81 (81) 28-68 22-79 (68) 20-51 120-7 (120) 68-67 (54) 84-4 (80) 66-1. Resumes 2.30 today.
(3) J Higgins (Sco) trails (6) M Stevens (Wal) 6-10. Frame scores (Higgins first): 33-98 (86) 0-67 (50) 0-101 (61) 67-16 74-53 68-31 (63) 62-6 0-70 (69) 40-72 0-85 0-101 (101) 0-145 (145) 86-29 (86) 37-66 9-57 79-21. Resumes 10.0a.m.
(1) R O'Sullivan (Eng) and (8) S Lee (Eng) level at 4-4. Frame scores (Lee first): 31-73 17-97 72-61 43-61 4-113 66-55 119-0 (119) 65-31. Resumes 10.0a.m.
(7) P Ebdon (Eng) leads A Hamilton (Eng) 6-2. Frame scores (Hamilton first): 8-80 71-1 109-0 (109) 0-108 (108) 0-90 8-78 32-112 21-59. Resumes 2.30 today.
