Doherty looks back in wonder at Hendry scalp

In sport there are few characters more bashful than Dubliner Ken Doherty.

When the 35-year-old explains, then, how he feels two days of his snooker career changed the face of the sport, your ears prick up.

Doherty is adamant that his triumph over Stephen Hendry in the 1997 Crucible final shaped the professional game as we now know it.

Hendry had won five straight world titles and it was felt he would make it six by imposing his authority, his mean streak, his Sheffield savvy on another final.

But Doherty was determined that the two-day final would not be an exercise in futility, and his desire told over the two days of the final as he prevailed 18-12.

It was a result which to this day he maintains opened the door for a whole new generation of players to realise the World Championship crown, or at least a place in the final, should not be out of their grasp.

“It was just Hendry every year and Jimmy White getting to the final every year,” Doherty recalls.

“I think my victory gave a lot of people belief. When I beat Hendry he was generally believed to be unbeatable in Sheffield. But then a lot of the players probably thought, ‘if he can do it. Why can’t I?’.

“It was definitely the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Doherty has been back to the final twice since his glory night eight years ago, losing to John Higgins as defending champion in 1998 and then in 2003 succumbing to Mark Williams, when the Welshman was at the very top of his game.

Hendry has won just one further world title since Doherty removed the Scot’s mask of invincibility, while Higgins and Peter Ebdon, and Williams and Ronnie O’Sullivan – both twice – have all been regaled on snooker’s big day on the sporting calendar.

A closed shop no longer. But for all his endeavours of 1997, there was no consolation for Doherty last year, upon his first-round exit at the hands of Joe Swail.

It has taken him a year, almost, to recover from that setback, but Doherty now talks of having a “spring in my step” once more as he sets out for what he anticipates will be more than a fleeting visit to South Yorkshire.

He reached the semi-finals of the China Open at the start of the month, and remarks: “It was good to get a bit of a run. I still have a long way to go, to get where I want to be, but I’m getting there. I’ve got a bit more of a spring in my step after reaching the semi-finals.”

China was a competitive tournament but Sheffield is a different animal, and Barry Pinches awaits in the first round this time, with Doherty desperate to avoid a shock when their match begins on Monday.

“Last year against Joe Swail I started off pretty well,” he said.

“I was 4-2 up and should have been 6-3 at the interval break. But when I was 5-4 down, he came out and flew through the evening session.

“I lost the match 10-6 and he played well, so there’s no excuse. He played better on the day. But after getting to the final the previous year it was a big, big blow.”

This year the Irishman has tumbled from seventh to 13th in the provisional world rankings for next season.

The objective for Sheffield will be to venture as far as is required to regain his top-eight place. That could mean the semi-finals.

Doherty is undaunted, because he feels he has nothing left to prove to anyone, even himself.

“I’ve already won it,” he asserts. “I’ve been there and done it, so I know what it feels like and a lot of players don’t have that. It’s just magnificent, to win the world title. Absolutely magnificent.

“It was just fantastic that night, the dream of all dreams, and to beat Stephen Hendry who’s probably the best player ever to have played the game topped it off.

“It was great and the best thing was to bring the trophy back to Ireland. I took it all the way through Dublin city centre on an open top bus and you couldn’t believe it. It was like I was carrying the FA Cup.

“My whole family were on the bus, people were on the streets waving their flags, and cars were stopping, beeping their horns, and it was just incredible.

“I watch the video of my win now and again. I haven’t watched it for a few years now, but maybe now I should do, to bring back all the good memories.”