1. Ken Doherty was born on 17 September 1969 and is an Irish professional snooker player who works as a commentator and pundit on televised snooker broadcasts.
43 Facts About Ken Doherty
1. 2.
Ken Doherty is the only player to have won the world amateur and world professional title, having been world U-21 champion.
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Ken Doherty competes on the World Seniors Tour, where he won the 2018 UK Seniors Championship and has twice been runner-up at the World Seniors Championship, in 2020 and 2024.
4.
Ken Doherty first became interested in snooker when he started to watch the BBC programme Pot Black with his father at eight years old.
5.
Ken Doherty received a miniature snooker table as a Christmas present, and soon afterwards began playing on full-sized tables at Jason's Snooker Hall in Ranelagh.
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Ken Doherty won the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur Championship in 1989, and turned professional the following year.
7.
Ken Doherty made it to the semi-finals of the 1992 British and Strachan Open, and reached the final of the 1992 Irish Masters.
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Ken Doherty won the 1993 Irish Professional Championship, was a semi-finalist at the 1993 International Open, and a quarter-finalist again at the 1993 Irish Masters.
9.
Ken Doherty reached the World Championship final in 1998, losing to John Higgins, and in 2003, losing narrowly to Mark Williams.
10.
In that championship, Ken Doherty played more frames than anyone before or since.
11.
In frame 33, Ken Doherty missed the penultimate red with a clearance easily available.
12.
Ken Doherty did make a 147 break two years later though, when he won the Cue Club Pro-Am tournament in Killarney in 2002.
13.
In 2001 Ken Doherty became one of the few players who have won back-to-back ranking events, as he won the Welsh Open and the Thailand Masters, while reaching the final of the next tournament, the Regal Scottish Open.
14.
Ken Doherty called the victory, which bridged a five-year gap, his "most important tournament win since the World Championship".
15.
Ken Doherty admitted afterwards that he "blew it" but that he still had "a couple more years" to come back and win the title.
16.
Ken Doherty followed this up with a last-16 defeat at the Grand Prix in Aberdeen and the UK Championship in York.
17.
Ken Doherty reached the quarter-finals of the next two tournaments, the Masters and the Malta Cup.
18.
Ken Doherty lost in the first round of the World Championship and, although clearly disappointed, the Dubliner vowed to continue.
19.
Ken Doherty then reached the final of the Malta Cup for a record fifth time, defeating John Higgins in the semi-finals, before losing to Murphy in the final.
20.
Ken Doherty stated that he almost quit the game in 2009, following his downturn in form which saw him drop to world number 55.
21.
Ken Doherty was ranked 32nd in the world going into the 2012 World Championship qualifiers, where he faced Anthony Hamilton.
22.
Ken Doherty was defeated in qualifying for the Shanghai Masters and the 2012 UK Championship, and failed to advance beyond the wildcard round of the International Championship.
23.
Ken Doherty was eliminated in the first round of the German Masters by Peter Lines, but then had his best run of the season at the Welsh Open.
24.
The result meant that this was the first season where Ken Doherty had not featured in any of snooker's Triple Crown events.
25.
Ken Doherty increased his ranking by eight spots during the season to finish it ranked world number 27.
26.
Ken Doherty was knocked out of the semi-finals of the World Seniors Championship by Fergal O'Brien.
27.
Ken Doherty was placed 45th in the world rankings at the end of the season, the lowest he had been since 1991.
28.
However, the day before the 2017 World Championship started, it was announced that Ken Doherty would receive an invitational tour card for the next two years.
29.
Ken Doherty played against Ronnie O'Sullivan, the defending champion, in the second round of the 2018 UK Championship.
30.
Ken Doherty was able to force a decider, but ultimately just one error from him was enough for his opponent to finish the frame, to prevent Ken Doherty from causing a considerable upset in the tournament where many seeds fell to lower-ranked players already, and more would follow.
31.
Ken Doherty would be the only player that came close to defeating the eventual champion, as the other matches, with the exception of the final, produced very one-sided results.
32.
For most of his career, Ken Doherty played with a warped cue randomly selected from the cue rack in Jason's, a club where he practised.
33.
At the 2025 World Snooker Championship qualifiers, Doherty switched to a different cue for the first time in his professional career, likening the change to a "new romance".
34.
Ken Doherty became a regular commentator for the BBC starting with the 2009 Masters, following the side-lining of veteran expert Clive Everton.
35.
Ken Doherty guested as a presenter on the Morning Show on East Coast FM.
36.
Ken Doherty married Sarah, who is originally from India, in December 2001.
37.
In 2022, Ken Doherty revealed that he and his wife had separated amicably.
38.
Ken Doherty was nearly blinded in 2002 in a bathroom accident; after slipping, he struck an ornament, which narrowly missed his left eye.
39.
Doherty and his family are of Roman Catholic faith, with his mother, Rose usually praying while Ken was playing matches.
40.
In May 2007, Ken Doherty appeared on RTE's spoof show Anonymous, heavily disguised as a priest.
41.
However, as "Fr Donoghue" began to clear the table, Higgins' suspicions were aroused and Ken Doherty was eventually rumbled.
42.
Ken Doherty's disguise was enough to fool his mother and his wife.
43.
In 2020, Ken Doherty made a cameo appearance along with Jack Lisowski and Liang Wenbo in the snooker movie Break.