John Parrott said it after he was beaten in the quarter-final by John Higgins yesterday at the Crucible. The British media repeated it at the conference after Ireland's Ken Doherty made his way without fuss to the semi-final with a 13-10 win over Matthew Stevens. In fact people have been saying it all week - why is the reigning world champion being largely ignored?

"Ken's going along nice and quiet minding his own business," said Parrott, reminding the entire attendance that Doherty is still there and still potting with enough vigour to earn him a place in the semi-finals of the championship and £66,000 even if he does not advance another inch.

Jimmy White said after losing to Ronnie O'Sullivan: "I think Doherty might win it. He's been there before and he knows what it is about."

While Doherty may not be completely happy with his current form despite believing that many aspects of his game are stronger than they were last year, he has proven that the hard edge is still alive and the craft of knuckling down and extracting victories under pressure is now a stronger aspect of his play than it has ever been.

"Winning the tournament is more important than the media attention," he said afterwards. "I'm just here to do a job and that's to win the championship. I'm in the semi-finals without much notice. That suits me."

Doherty took seven hours and 31 minutes to see off the young Welshman over two days of snooker which oscillated between brilliance and scrappy play. Only in seven of Doherty's 23 frames did he make a break of over 50, although when the pressure came on in the final four frames it was then that the champion came through impressively with a run of breaks of 53, 70 and then 78 in the final game of the match.

"I think anyone who is left in the tournament now will have to play well to beat me. Sure, I've struggled in all of my three matches so far but in other ways my game has been better than last year. I've been here before and I know what it's like. Matthew played well. He dug in and always came back."

In many ways Doherty has been under pressure, not just to win the tournament like any other professional but to perform as reigning champion. In each of his three matches his opposition have been out to claim a scalp that would have launched them from the position of unknowns outside the sport to the young blades who took out the world champion - Lee Walker, Stephen Lee and Matthew Stephens. Doherty did not only have to avoid defeat but a certain degree of ignominy had he lost. That's pressure.

"Since winning it last year, it's been a roller coaster ride and the greatest year of my life. There were absolutely no negative aspects to being the world champion. If it doesn't happen for me this week I can look back at a fantastic year. And I don't mean that in any negative way."

From the 15th game until the end, Doherty always held at least a one frame advantage building up to 11-9 by game 20.

He now faces number four seed Mark Williams - who beat Peter Ebdon 13-11 last night - at 2.00 p.m. today.

Scotland's John Higgins is also through to the semi-finals after a 13-11 win over John Parrott in a match he described as "unbelievably tough".

Higgins, seeded third, set two snooker records during the three session match. Having finished Tuesday evening's play with a break of 102, he began yesterday's with back to back total clearances of 143 and 139. It was the first time there has been three successive clearances at the Crucible.

Higgins has so far constructed seven centuries in the tournament.

Ronnie O'Sullivan meets Higgins in the semi-final today at 7.00 p.m.

World Championship

Quarter-Finals (in Sheffield)

R O'Sullivan (Eng) bt J White (Eng) 13-7. (O'Sullivan first): 110 (104 break)-0 0-72 85-0 6036 65-26 66-50 92-0 83-48 56-62 50-81 84-33 3170 70-58 16-88 43-70 56-22 72-30 64-47 0-84 118 (118)-21. K Doherty (Irl) bt M Stevens (Wal) 1310. Frame scores (Doherty first): 83-34 53-75 5919 93-59 1-70 9-68 32-69 125-0 60-56 33-78 9240 68-22 38-67 4-127 (127 break) 113-8 69-47 53-67 58-13 1-66 66-27 70-1 17-61 78-0. J Higgins (Sco) bt J Parrott (Eng) 13-11. Frame scores (Higgins first): 7-82 70-4 71-29 24-70 78-1 17-56 50-59 65-21 76-1 0-83 36-55 78-12 0-76 6037 44-56 106 (102 break)-0 143 (143)-0 139 (139)-0 0-84 0-86 25-82 69-16 108-3 59-39.