Ken Doherty was back to his devastating best as he swept to an emphatic 9-2 victory over Paul Hunter in the Regal Welsh Open in Cardiff. The Dubliner, who had stormed into a 6-2 interval lead, required only three of the nine available frames to beat the 22-year-old Yorkshireman, and recapture the title that he won back in 1993.
The 31-year-old laid the foundations for his first victory since last February's Rothmans Malta Grand Prix, with a stunning display in the first session, when he notched four successive frames after Hunter had levelled the scores at 2-2.
"The most important thing for me is to be a winner again," said a delighted Doherty, whose path to the title saw him get the better of Stephen Hendry, the seven-times world champion, and Mark Williams, current holder of the game's blue riband, in the quarter and semi-finals. He added: "It's been eight years since I had this on my mantelpiece and its great that it's going back there after all this time. Beating Stephen was a real boost, I pinched a few frames out there, scored quite heavily and I'm back on the rostrum. I couldn't be happier."
It was his first world ranking event win on British soil since he ended Hendry's 29-match unbeaten record in the final of the 1997 Embassy World Championship. Doherty, looking to avenge a 5-0 drubbing by Hunter in the last 16 of December's China Open, took the first frame 63-1, before a break of 71 pushed him 2-1 ahead. Hunter pulled back to 2-2, but in frame five Doherty potted the blue, audaciously doubled the pink to a middle pocket and added the black for 3-2. He controlled a scrappy sixth frame to prise open a two-frame gap at 4-2, and there was no turning back as he captured the final two frames, rounding off the afternoon in considerable style with a 125 break.
There was to be no relief for Hunter on the resumption as Doherty edged the first frame of the evening on the blue, compiled breaks of 43 and 56 for 8-2 and put the lid on a satisfying result with a run of 69 in a 48 minute session.
Filed by Shane Murray
