Ken Doherty will play England's Stephen Lee in the semi-finals of the UK Championships on Friday after beating Matthew Stevens 9-7 following a marathon encounter in York on Wednesday night. The Dubliner eventually emerged with a deserved win in a scrappy affair, where both players failed to reproduce their typically composed games.
Doherty will be hoping to go one better than his second place finish to Stephen Hendry in 1994, but he will need to improve on his quarter-final showing here if he is to realise that ambition. There was little to choose between the duo throughout, but for two highly talented break-builders it became very scrappy in the final session.
Despite resuming with a run of 117, sixth seed Stevens could not add any further half-century contributions and world number four Doherty ground out a hard-fought success, a break of 69 securing his progression. A relieved Doherty admitted afterwards: "It was always going to be a tough battle. Matthew started like a train tonight, going 6-4 up, and I just had to keep fighting. I got back to 6-6 and then thought I'd blown it when I lost a frame I should have won and the last few frames were very tense. I think we were both feeling the pressure."
Filed by Shane Murray
