Doherty bows out after Bingham loss

Ken Doherty, who had shown some good form this week in beating John Higgins and Tom Ford, bowed out of the Welsh Open yesterday after losing 5-3 to England’s Stuart Bingham in the quarter-final.

The Dubliner started well, a break of 88 giving him the opening frame and then taking a scrappy second frame.

But Bingham hit back to level at the interval.

Doherty regained the lead at 3-2 when, at 47-27 ahead, he produced a sensational snooker with two reds left on the table. The snooker cost Bingham 20 points and Doherty potted a red to make sure of the frame. A break of 52 saw Bingham level at 3-3 and he took the next two as well for the match as Doherty made a succession of errors.

Meanwhile, Pankaj Advani’s history-making run was halted in comprehensive fashion by world number two Judd Trump.

The 27-year-old from Bangalore became the first Indian player to make the quarter-finals of a ranking event when he beat Graeme Dott 4-1 on Thursday.

But he found Trump a different proposition in Newport, with the former UK Championship winner wrapping up a 5-2 victory.

Trump was on course for a whitewash when he went 4-0 ahead, but Advani showed some resolve to get back to 4-2, turning around a 59-1 deficit in the sixth frame.

However, Trump raised his game and quick-fire 69 in the next frame to advance.