Snooker World Championship preview: This is the way Ken Doherty prefers to go into the World Championship. With stealth, understated, through the side door not centre stage. Doherty can play the crowd but his natural disposition is to be among them.match at the Crucible today, he is quietly confident of a good tournament

Like last year, when he made two of the greatest comebacks ever seen at the Crucible in the semi-final and the final before running low on gas against Mark Williams, few will expect the world-ranked number six to win the World Championship over the next two weeks, Ladbrokes least of all. They have him at 14-1 to favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan's 3-1.

Between Doherty and O'Sullivan, who he is scheduled to meet in the quarter-final if the seedings go to plan, are a handful of players all capable of winning the tournament. Three have done so in the last 10 years, Stephen Hendry five times, Mark Williams twice and Scotland's John Higgins.

While Doherty's season, so far, has been much less of an obtrusion on the world game than that of Jimmy White, who won his first ranking tournament in 12 years at the recent Players Championship in Glasgow, he is pleased with his game. Converting his practice form from the baize at Jason's, Ranelagh, to the one laid out in front of the BBC cameras in the Crucible, is what will define his tournament.

"I've started to play better over the last month or so," says the Dubliner. "A lot better. I feel the old confidence has come back. I don't know what to expect when I step out there. I know there will be fantastic matches and you never know how it will go. So all I can do is what I do every year and that is prepare as best I can and do as much as possible to give myself a chance. In that respect my conscience is clear."

Doherty no longer has to prove himself and as he slides into that group of players lazily categorised as "experienced", it seems, from the public at least, less is also expected from him. Last year he shattered perceived wisdom. That has also been the way of the player, much stronger inside that out. As the rest of the draw knows, Doherty with a little form is almost unbreakable.

"Anyone who has won it before has been tried, tested and come out gloriously at the end. In that respect you have nothing to prove to anybody," he says. "You've beaten the best players and you know you can do it again. Once you have gone through the mill and come out the other side with the trophy, then you've little to fear going in there again. Sure, I've changed things over the years. I've changed my routine, the way I practice, the way I live my life. Away from the table I try to watch everything. As you get older you get more experience, don't go out as much, don't go on the piss, try and see where you've gone wrong before."

Facing Ireland's Joe Swail in his first match is not what the 1997 champion would have preferred. With just two Irish players in the draw this year, they have become a precious commodity and with one departing first round, it is going to take a powerful solo run to keep Irish interest alive.

Fergal O'Brien fell 10-7 at the first hurdle in the qualifying tournament to Adrian Gunnell, while Dublin's Michael Judge recklessly handed back a 5-0 lead to John Parrott, eventually falling 10-9 in the final qualifying event. Patrick Wallace was beaten 10-7 by England's Chris Small, also at the final qualifying round as Swail brushed Brian Morgan aside 10-3 to secure his meeting with Doherty.

"Meeting Joe first round? Yeah, a little disappointed. There are only two of us in the tournament and one of us will go out. Joe and I get on very well together. It is hard for us to play each other but I know that everything will go out the window in Sheffield.

"He's been to the semi-finals two years in a row and he's very dangerous if he's let be. I'm not looking any further. Can't afford to. There are a lot of banana skins in the first round."

Doherty is still using sports psychologist Liam Moggan, who last year was given partial bragging rights when his player spectacularly came back three times. Down 7-2 against Graeme Dott, Doherty came back to win 13-12. Against Paul Hunter in the semi-final, he trailed 15-9, Hunter needing to win just two frames to Doherty's eight to win the match.

Again the former champion improbably converted an almost paralysing deficit into a victory to climb into the final against Williams. There the Welsh player shot to a 10-2 lead and promised BBC viewers their most one-sided final in years. But in the third session six consecutive frames went Doherty's way and he brought it to 11-11 before finally yielding 18-16.

"Last year was much more draining than winning the trophy. But at the time I didn't feel it. I suppose I was just living off adrenalin. I was prepared for it. When I won it in 1997, it was quite straightforward. I didn't really go through the same emotions as I did last year. You know I played more frames than anyone in the history of the World Championship last year and I was loving every minute of it. That's important.

"Yes, sure I was disappointed that I didn't win the trophy. But I've been lucky over the years in that I've been able to play well at the Crucible. But I believe that you have to look at the positives. It is pointless looking back at the bad. I formulate the positive things into what I do this year. You do learn more in defeat that in victory."

What may help Doherty is the fanfare that will surround Jimmy White when he steps out to play Barry Pinches for a possible meeting with Stephen Hendry in round two. By beating Masters champion Paul Hunter 9-7 last month, the 41-year-old lifted his first significant trophy since he won the 1992 UK Championship.

White won just two matches in eight ranking events last season and it then seemed remote that he would ever recover the form, which made him one of snooker's top players throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Now he is 10 on the provisional ranking list, only the eloquently talented Ronnie O'Sullivan has gathered more points this season.

At 34-years-old Doherty seems coltish in comparison and he clings to a reasoned belief that he can still win it. That's the point of turning up.

"You have to have determination, you have to have will," he says. "You don't have that, then forget about it. When the crunch comes, be ready. The Crucible can be a frightening place."