The World Champion Ken Doherty is sitting across the table unable to contain his laughter. "That would be some sight for sore eyes," he snorts before reading out the headline from a British tabloid. He holds the paper in the air and points to the absurd story.

"She wanted me nude except for my dicky bow and waist coat," runs the exclusive on "Snooker Love Rat" Steve James.

Fergal O'Brien looks at the piece and throws in his tuppence worth.

"It couldn't be better if you made it up," he says.

"Jaysus," adds Doherty, "Look what they've done, they've stuck in a picture of his missus with yer one."

Doherty has reason to see humour in most things. Almost forgotten by the British media, he has crept into the quarter-finals of these World snooker Championship by stealth. Having finally despatched 16th ranked Stephen Lee in Saturday's final session after a worrying five frame slump between 10-3 and 10-8, Doherty is enjoying his low key presence.

"It doesn't bother me that people are talking about Ronnie (O'Sullivan) and Jimmy (White). I'd rather move my way to the quarter-finals without too much bother. I'm happy to keep away from the attention and do my own thing. It worked well for me last year and I want to keep to the same regime again this year," he says.

Those who fear for a Doherty exit before the final will look to the last three frames of Friday night's session and the first two of Saturday's as a scar on his run so far. Through breaks of 62 and 75 in frame 17 and 18, Lee came close to unsettling the champion. But a routine miss on a mid-range red to the corner pocket in the 19th frame from the 24-year-old enabled Doherty to take the table and reassert himself with a break of 65. From there he built on a further three frames for the match.

"He came back very well and he looked pretty strong and confident.

I lost a couple of games that I probably should have won like when I went for the black at 10-3 and missed in the corner going up for the yellow.

"After the Friday session I knew that the job still wasn't done. I felt I still had to come back and start all over again. Even though I knew I was four frames up I also knew that if he got a few more on the board, his confidence would be back up again. He won the first two and it was looking a bit dodgy but I managed to hold myself together.

"I'd left the Friday session disappointed. I felt I should have made it 11-5 and that would have made his job a whole lot harder.

"It meant he would have had to beat me 8-1 on Saturday-but still, he had to beat me 7-2 anyway.

"I'm pretty happy with the out come. I responded to the pressure and I raised my game up again. I feel I've played a lot better over the last couple of days than I did at the beginning of the tournament. All through the match it was half chances and I was winning frames by making decent breaks. But to beat Stephen, who is having a very good season, is a good result for me."

Much as Doherty will hate it, he is tipped to advance to the semi-finals. On Tuesday, he faces one of two qualifiers, 21-year-old Welshman Matthew Stephens, seeded 53 or the 24-year-old Essex left-hander Mark King, seeded 20. A loss to either would be a shock. Beneath it all Doherty knows his chances of advancing to the semi-finals are very healthy indeed. Perhaps, that is why, for the moment at least, the champion is still smiling.

Dubliner O'Brien, Ireland's other World Championship hopeful, now faces a grim struggle in today's final second-round match at the Crucible. The 26-year-old failed to bridge the two frame gap opened by fifth seed Peter Ebdon when they met last night and although his problems are not completely insurmountable, progress to the quarter finals is highly unlikely.

The modest and affable O'Brien went into the contest trailing 2-1 in matches played this year against Ebdon but with soaring confidence having beaten 12th seed James Wattana 10-9 in the first round last week.

Having kept the pace with the 27-year-old Englishman to the sixth frame in the match where the score was 3-3, the 1996 World Championship finalist took the remaining games of the first session to carry a 5-3 advantage into yesterday's programme before winning eight in succession. O'Brien, however, rallied in the 15th to force the match to an endgame today.

Ebdon, who won the Irish Masters at Goffs in 1995 and currently leads the table in Sheffield with five century breaks so far, won a very tactical final frame which lasted 49 minutes to take him one from the finishing line.