The Hindu : Ebdon and Doherty book quarterfinal berths

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 29, 2002

Sport

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Ebdon and Doherty book quarterfinal berths

Sheffield April 28. Former world champion Ken Doherty and 1996 runner-up Peter Ebdon booked their places in the quarterfinals of the World Snooker Championship here.

Irishman Doherty, the champion in 1997, won a thrilling second round match 13-12 yesterday against England's Mark King after battling back from 2-6 down at one stage.

``It was a really, really tough match,'' said Doherty. ``He played some really tough match snooker out there. I haven't seen him play for over a season and he surprised me a lot with how good his safety was. In the last session he came back at me again and it was getting really tense. The last frames were very tense.''

It was a classic see-saw encounter with Doherty trailing 3-7 and then ahead 11-7 before being hauled back to 12-12 as world number 13 King forced a deciding frame.

Doherty, the world No. four, who beat Stephen Hendry 18-12 in the 1997 final here, added that he was just happy to get through.

``I will have to play better and with more consistency if I am to have any aspirations of winning this tournament,'' said the Dubliner.

Leading 9-7, Doherty extended his advantage in the first two frames with breaks of 69 and 75 to close within two of the winning line.

At that stage, King had lost eight successive frames, but he stopped the rot by taking the 19th and then made it 11-9 at the interval after winning a safety battle on the final green in the 20th.

AFP

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