The burden of being world champion continues to rest uneasily on Ken Doherty's shoulders, though the Dubiner was delighted to get off the mark in the German Open in Bingen last night. Doherty defeated Lancashire-based Pakistani Shokat Ali 52 in a protracted struggle lasting three hours 16 and minutes.
After securing his safe passage to the last eight of the £280,000 event Doherty admitted: "People expect me to perform like I did during the world championship.
"That's just not going to happen. "You've got to graft out results at times when you are not on form and tonight I had to graft.
"Don't get me wrong it's a great feeling to be world champion and you carry a lot more pride every time you go out to play. It's a little bit different to what I expected but once I settle in I'll be fine. I am putting in plenty of hard work so I am confident the results will follow."
Doherty won three frames without reply after Ali had battled back from 2-0 down. However, it wasn't easy for the 1995 German Open finalist who became embroiled in a 51-minute sixth frame that finally broke his opponent's resistance.
A break of 58 to add to earlier runs of 88 and 59 set up Doherty for a quarter-final tomorrow with Scotsman Jamie Burnett.
"I was getting frustrated because I knew it could easily have been 3-1 and 4-0 at the break instead of just 2-2 The turning point was when I came back from 45-0 down in the fifth to win it with a break of 88," said Doherty.
Burnett will be appearing in the last eight of a ranking tournament for the first time. And for that he can thank a splendid comeback success over Gary Wilkinson at the start of the day.
Burnett who beat Stephen Hendry at the Grand Prix in October, recovered well from 3-1 and 4-2 down to prevail in a deciding ninth frame.
"I probably didn't deserve to win," admitted Burnett whose five victories in the competition included a 5-1 win over last year's runner-up Alain Robidoux at in the qualifying rounds.
It was a good day for the Scots with 1995 German champion John Higgins beating Martin Clark 5-2. Higgins might have won 5-0 but clearing up from the green in the opening frame he missed the pink into a top pocket. That gave world number 27 Clark his only success in the opening five frames.
Higgins knocked in 74 to level at 1-1 and later added runs of 121 and 37. He should have polished the match off at 5-1 but allowed Clark to clear up from 56-40 behind.
Higgins, like Doherty later admitted: "I need to play better if I want to win the title."
Both he and Doherty were hit badly by their early defeats at the UK Championship where Higgins lost to Gary Ponting and Doherty went down to Neal Foulds.
