Ken Doherty
| Name | Date of Birth | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Ken Doherty | 17-09-1969 | Ireland |
Career
After two semi-finals in the 1991/92 season (his second as a professional), Doherty reached the final of the 1992 Grand Prix, narrowly losing 10–9 to Jimmy White. In the same event a year later, he lost 6–9 to Peter Ebdon. His first ranking title was the 1993 Welsh Open, enough to take him into the top 16 in the world, where he remained until the 2007/08 season. In the 1994 World Championship he reached the quarter-finals, his only run past the first round before 1997.
Doherty became only the third player from outside the United Kingdom (after Australian Horace Lindrum in 1952 and Canadian Cliff Thorburn in 1980) 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 outstanding 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 and 16–16. In frame 33, Doherty missed the 2nd to final red with a clearance there for the taking. Williams won that crucial frame and the next to prevail 18–16.
A 6–0 thrashing at the hands of Peter Ebdon ended Doherty's International Championship at the first round stage and he lost 6–3 to Mark Davis in the second round of the UK Championship, having whitewashed Tony Drago 6–0 in the opener. His best runs of the season were a pair of last 32 exits at the German Masters and Welsh Open, 5–1 to Stephen Maguire and 4–2 to Joe Perry respectively.His end of season ranking of 57 was the lowest of his 26-year professional career.He had two last 16 showings during the 2016/2017 season and would have dropped off the tour at the end of the season as he was outside of the top 64 in the world rankings.However, the day before the 2017 World Championship started it was announced that Doherty would receive an invitational tour card for the next two years.