Ken Doherty

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 217.113.54.86 (talk) at 10:28, 21 September 2007 (french article created). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Ken Doherty
Nickname
  • The Darlin' of Dublin[1]
  • Crafty Ken[2]
Professional1990–
Highest ranking
  1. 2
Current ranking 79 (as of 7 May 2024)
Century breaks358 (as of 6 May 2024)
Tournament wins
Ranking6
World Champion1997

Ken Doherty (born September 17, 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player. He is the only player ever to have been world amateur (1989) and world professional champion (1997). He was also World Under-21 champion in 1989. A successful season in 2005-06 saw him rise to no. 2 in the snooker world rankings. However, a first-round loss to Mark Allen in the 2007 World Championships ended his chances of becoming the world's no. 1 player for next season. Nonetheless, he is ranked no. 4 for 2007-08.

Career

After Horace Lindrum from Australia and Cliff Thorburn from Canada in 1980, Doherty became only the third player from outside the United Kingdom to win the World Championship when he beat Stephen Hendry 18-12 in the 1997 final. Ken also reached the World Championship final in 1998, losing to John Higgins and in 2003, losing narrowly to Mark Williams. The latter run was noted for some impressive comebacks, including final-frame wins over Graeme Dott and Shaun Murphy, a 13-8 win over John Higgins in a match where Doherty raced ahead 10-0 but Higgins fought back to 10-7, and a semi-final fightback from 9-15 to beat Paul Hunter 17-16. In that championship he played more frames than anyone before or since. In the final, Williams led 11-4 but Doherty fought back to 12-12 before Williams prevailled 18-16.

In the 2005 World Championship, Doherty beat Barry Pinches in the first round 10-5, winning the last 8 frames, but was knocked out in the second round losing to Alan McManus 13-11.

Following an average start to the 2005/06 season, Doherty won the Malta Cup in February 2006, beating John Higgins in the final. Doherty had trailed 8-5 at one stage but managed a stirring comeback, winning four frames in a row. Doherty called the victory, which bridged a five-year gap, his "most important tournament win since the World Championship".[4] In the 2006 World Championship, Ken started brightly winning his first match and defeated Barry Hawkins 10-1 and then he beat Matthew Stevens, playing superbly to win the last 5 frames. Ken was favourite in his quarter-final match against Marco Fu but lost 13-10. It was 8-8 as the final session started, but Ken struggled, although tellingly he battled to win a frame in which he required 3 snookers. Ken led 7-6, 8-7, 9-8 and 10-9 but could never quite take that two frame advantage that might have given him the momentum to win the match. Ken admitted afterwards that he "blew it"" but that he still had "a couple more years" to come back and win the title. Ken ended the 05/06 season as the world no.2, his highest ranking ever, and he made a solid start to the 06/07 snooker season by reaching the quarter final at what is the closest thing to a home tournament for him, the Northern Ireland Trophy at Belfast's Waterfront Hall. He followed this up with a last 16 defeats at the Grand Prix in Aberdeen and the UK Championship in York. He reached the quarter-finals of the next two tournaments, the Masters and the Malta Cup. He lost in the first round of the World Championship and, although clearly disappointed, the Dubliner vowed to continue.[5]

In October 2006, he won the Irish Professional Snooker Championships, an invitational event, beating Michael Judge 9-4 in the final.

Doherty's game is quite tactically based, with some feeling that he doesn't always score heavily enough, although he is also capable of making big breaks. This cautious approach has led to commentators calling him "Krafty Ken", and it has been suggested by the BBC commentary team that he is the best all-round player in the game today, without being the best in any one dimension of the game. Dennis Taylor has also said that Ken is the finest snooker escapologist he has ever seen.

In 2000, he narrowly failed to achieve a maximum 147 break when he missed a rudimentary final black off its spot in the 15th frame of the Benson & Hedges Masters final against Matthew Stevens, which he eventually lost 10-8. This one pot would have seen him win an £80,000 sports car. However, at 140 he did at least have the consolation of the £19,000 highest break prize.

Doherty's early career had begun with practice in Jason's of Ranelagh, Dublin, where he used to play handicap snooker tournaments on Saturday mornings before moving on to national tournaments. This club closed in 2006. He now practises in a well-know Dublin hotel. In his first national event, an U-16 ranking tournament, Doherty lost in the final but would come back a month later and beat the man who had beaten him in the Irish U-16 National Championships. He won the World Championship in 1997 with a cue he spotted on the rack in Jason's and purchased (after some haggling) for IRL£2.

Doherty shooting with the rest, at the 2005 Swiss Open

Doherty has compiled 232 competitive centuries during his career.

Life outside snooker

Ken resides in Ranelagh and is married to Sarah, who is of Australian descent. He was nearly blinded in 2002 in a bathroom accident; after slipping, he struck an ornament, which narrowly missed his left eye. However, his distinctive scar on his right cheek dates back to his seventh birthday, when he fell off a shed roof on to a metal dustbin. His cousin Shane Doherty is based in London and is an up and coming player on the snooker circuit. The best player based in North-West London for his age group (under 18 champion of north-west London)[citation needed]. He aspires to match the feat of his cousin in winning the snooker world championship[citation needed].

He has started working occasionally on TV studio coverage on snooker matches with the BBC snooker coverage team, along with Steve Davis and John Parrott. Doherty is a Manchester United fan and he paraded his trophy at Old Trafford in front of 55,000 spectators following his World Championship triumph[citation needed].

Tournament wins

Ranking wins

Other wins

External links

References

  1. ^ "Ken Doherty". World Snooker Tour. Archived from the original on 29 November 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  2. ^ "Crafty Ken through after Carter drama". World Snooker Tour. 29 September 2021. Archived from the original on 13 February 2024. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  3. ^ World Snooker profile
  4. ^ [1] RTÉ Sport
  5. ^ [2] RTÉ Sport

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ken_Doherty&oldid=159361021"