Any flights of fancy that Ken Doherty would breeze through his 25-frame quarter final match against qualifier Matthew Stevens were quickly dispelled last night at the Crucible after two sessions.
The reigning champion was forced to work extremely hard for his slim 9-7 overnight lead against the Welsh 20-year-old, seeded 53 for the competition. In the opening eight frame session yesterday morning Doherty built up an initial 3-1 advantage before Stevens made a charge to lead 4-3. Doherty then pulled back the last frame just before the interval to go into last night's session all level.
The Irishman had only two breaks of over 50 throughout the early session compared with four from his opponent, but was able to post his best score of 125 including a break of 82 under pressure and when he needed it most in frame eight. "It suits me not to look too far ahead. When certain people look too far ahead they loose track of what they have in front of them. They get carried away with the draw without worrying about the match in hand," the champion had said in the build-up, illustrating the fact that although Stevens is a relatively unknown outside the sport, he was still going to be treated with genuine respect. Stevens has reached the semifinals of both the Grand Prix and UK championships this season with some outstanding displays of break building. He was also the winner of the 1995 Benson and Hedges championship but was bitterly disappointed to miss out on the Crucible last year. Doherty's sentiments proved to be well founded as Stevens again came close to sweeping to a 5-4 lead. The youngster, who only turned professional in 1994 and has never gone beyond the last 32 in this competition, missed the pink in what would have been a winning pot before Doherty gladly snatched the game 60-56.
Stevens, however, hit back in a tense game, while Doherty took the 11th 92-40 and the 12th 68-22 to establish a 7-5 lead.
But the Irishman's disappointment in the 13th frame was evident as he missed a red pot to send the game into a series of safety shots. Both players exchanged the advantage a number of times before the reigning champion missed a long range green allowing his opponent to clawback a frame to take it to 7-6, adding a 127 break to again even the score at 7-7.
A break of 85 for Doherty for a lead of 8-7 followed by an error strewn final frame from Doherty left the match poised at 9-7 setting up what will surely be a dogged final session this afternoon. The winner will meet either England's Peter Ebdon or Mark Williams in the 33 frame semifinal which begins on Thursday. Ebdon seeded fifth, fell behind against the number four Welsh seed who now leads the match 5-3.
In the bottom half of the draw Ronnie O'Sullivan raced to a 7-1 advantage over an out of sorts Jimmy White, a score from which the veteran will find it very difficult to recover. White who celebrates his 36th birthday on Saturday, has lost in six finals already, five times against Stephen Hendry and once against John Parrott.
Parrott, the only Member of the British Empire (MBE) currently in the competition from three starters (Steve Davis and Hendry being the other two) will complete this quarter-final match against the third seed John Higgins, today. Parrott and the Scot finished last night's session at 8-8.
