Fergal O'Brien stepped into the first ranking tournament semi-final of his career in Aberdeen yesterday thanks to his latest great escape at the Scottish Open.
Dun Laoghaire's O'Brien defeated fellow Dubliner Ken Doherty 5-4, after trailing the world champion 4-2.
O'Brien (25) had recovered from 2-0 and 3-2 behind in the previous round to knock out another top name, Peter Ebdon.
"Ken's a tremendous player, and this would have been a great scalp even if he hadn't been world champion," said the world number 23.
"There's no extra sweetness because he's a fellow Irishman. We'll be practising together before we go out to Thailand next month."
The match hinged on the seventh frame, with Doherty two up and just needing a tricky clearance to reach the last four.
Instead, he missed the penultimate red on a break of 29, and O'Brien added a closing run of 34 to keep the game alive.
"That was a terrible match," Doherty admitted. "When games go scrappy it's hard to get any rhythm going.
"It's disappointing, because I had played well in the other rounds. But good luck to Fergal."
Doherty, though, issued a note of caution to his World Cup teammate. "He has got to play better than that if he wants to win the title, but I'm sure he knows that."
