Early exit for downcast Doherty
Dott, who contemplated not playing at the Crucible after being diagnosed with depression, lost 10-7 to Joe Perry while Doherty was convincingly beaten 10-5 by Chinese debutant Liang Wenbo.
Doherty will now drop out of the top 16 in the world rankings for the first time in 15 years and faces having to qualify for the televised stage of tournaments next season.
A downcast Doherty said: “It’s hard to describe, it’s very disappointing. I didn’t play like I can and to drop out of the top 16 is the icing on the cake.
“I’m not afraid to go back to the qualifiers but it will be a lot tougher. There are players who have gone there and come back and my results will show I probably deserve to go out of the top 16.
“It would be quite scary if this was my last Crucible but I’ve got my hands on the trophy once. Who knows whether I will be back or not?
“I just did not play well all season. I don’t know where it went wrong. I’ve been playing very well in practice and putting lots of hours in but not seeing the fruits of it.
“Liang played a lot like Mark Allen against me last year (Allen won in the first round). He did not look like he had any nerves and had been here more times than I had.”
Dott has failed to win any of his last 16 matches but the 30-year-old was pleased to have given such a good account of himself at the scene of his shock triumph in 2006.
“I had actually withdrawn from the tournament a few weeks ago,” revealed Dott. “The press release had been written and I told my manager to release it but he wanted to wait a week.
“He then introduced me to psychologist Bob Burns. He said he didn’t want me to come and I wasn’t in the frame of mind to play until I picked up my cue last week.
“I am surprised at how I played, I felt great, really back to normal. Hopefully by the time next season comes around I will be fully right. I just want to get better.
“A lot of matches this year it’s not me that’s been there, I’ve just turned up and bashed balls about, but today Joe just beat me.
“I thought he played unbelievably well. He made four centuries and could easily have had six. I can’t speak highly enough about the way he played.”
Another former champion, 2005 winner Shaun Murphy, had no such problems and eased into the second round with a 10-3 victory over Stoke’s Dave Harold.
Resuming 7-2 ahead, Murphy lost the opening frame of the session but then won the next three in succession with breaks of 107, 72 and 73.
On the other table, Ronnie O’Sullivan began his campaign for a third world title by taking a narrow 5-4 lead over teenage Chinese debutant Liu Chuang.
O’Sullivan showed flashes of his brilliant best as he won the opening two frames with breaks of 76 and 87, and won the third after a protracted safety battle on the yellow.
However, 17-year-old Liu deservedly got on the board with a break of 92 and won the next two frames to level at 3-3.
O’Sullivan edged clear with a 57 clearance but Liu made it 4-4 and O’Sullivan was grateful to win a tight ninth frame ahead of today’s final session.
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