It was a day of mixed fortunes for the Irish players involved in this afternoon's Embassy Snooker World Championship quarter-finals at the Crucible in Sheffield. Dubliner Ken Doherty was up against Scotland's John Higgins and Doherty was fortunate to take the opening frame after fluking a red while escaping a snooker and then clearing up to steal it on the black. Higgins snatched the second frame on the pink but he did not pot a single ball in the following two frames as the 1997 world champion confidently moved 3-1 ahead with breaks of 114 and 91.
At that stage, he looked very comfortable but the 1998 champion did not panic and recovered well to level matters when he managed a run of 72 in frame five and pinched the sixth on the pink with a 35 clearance after Doherty had failed to slot away a tricky red. The Scot then fired a 98 break in the seventh before taking the final frame of the session to open up a two-frame lead.
On the other table, the dream continued for Dungannon's Patrick Wallace, making his debut at the Crucible, as he opened up a 6-2 lead over his lifelong friend Joe Swail. The world number 59, a 250/1 pre-Championship outsider registered two separate breaks of 52 and a break of 65 during today's first session. This match resumes tomorrow morning at 10am while Doherty will resume his tie against Higgins at 2:30pm.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
