Ireland's Ken Doherty is becoming addicted to extremes. Following a semi-final against Mark Williams during which fortunes swung wildly before he clinched a final place against Scotland's John Higgins, the defending champion last night again put himself in the position (at 610 down) of needing an inspired session this afternoon to claw himself back into the final of the World Championship in the Crucible.
Doherty's fate seems now to consist of digging holes for himself before staging heart-stirring comebacks when all seems lost. So far, however, the Irishman has shown remarkable powers of recuperation. The crown has not yet slipped.
Having finally defeated Williams 17-14, Doherty became only the second player to return to the Crucible final the year after winning for the first time. Joe Johnson was the first in 1986 but, like every debut winner so far, the Englishman failed to retain the title.
Introduced in each session as the "Classy Dubliner", Doherty has being using the same tactics to combat the 22-year-old Higgins as he did against Williams. Recognising the strength of his opponent's potting ability, Doherty has tailored his game accordingly, sticking with the experienced decision-making and guile that has seen him through so far.
Still, the 28-year-old has had more difficulty containing the more clinical world number two, who added a 130 and 103 score to the nine 100-plus breaks he has already achieved in this championship. Higgins is also joint leader, along with Jimmy White, of the tournaments' highest break competition, both players having recorded 143s. The Scot, who will become world number one in place of Stephen Hendry should he win this championship, ran in five 50-plus breaks in the first session forcing Doherty into a 6-1 tailspin.
But true to form the defending champion recovered with a four-frame run, taking the last frame of the morning session to trail 6-2 before beginning the evening's play with a 112 clearance. Doherty then added the next two frames 66-7 and 97-18 to bring matters back to 6-5 and once again he was back in contention.
The final five sessions of the day, however, saw Higgins embark on his second solo run of the match. Opening with a 103, he added a further four frames to lead 10-5.
He looked set to clinch the last frame of the day as well, but a brilliant snooker on the brown allowed Doherty to claw back the deficit and clinch the frame on the black.
"My scoring throughout hasn't been that great. I've been breaking down after 40 or 50," said Doherty. "Sure I've struggled. I'll have to play better and I will do. There is no doubt about that.
"The tough matches I've had so far have not drained me mentally or physically. I feel elated that I'm in the final. A lot of people weren't giving me much hope of retaining my title and, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't have blamed them. But I'm in there with a fighter's chance."
Higgins has been struggling to achieve the success he feels capable of and in the last two years at the Crucible has got no further than the quarter-finals. He has, though, reached six finals so far this season and won two.
"I had problems here last year with my cue. I was changing it and not practising as well as I should have done. It was a vicious circle really - I wasn't putting in enough practice and I was blaming the cue. I was going out too much and enjoying myself," he said.
"This season I've put in a lot of practice and got more used to the cue and everything's back to normal again. It's been a learning experience."
