BANGKOK, March 6: World No. 4 Ken Doherty is a very genial person as long as you don’t ask him to play a supporting role.

Doherty came from 3-0 down to defeat Joe Perry 5-3 and record his third win in two months against the English professional, whom he had beaten 5-0 in the Regal Welsh in January and 5-2 in last week’s China Open.

But the 32-year-old Irishman was less than pleased at having to play the match on a side table, the host broadcaster preferring to showcase the first-round clash between Steve Davis and Dave Harold.

Perry, pressing hard for a top-16 place, took the first two frames in 20 minutes and then stole the third with a colours clearance. He led 48-21 in the next but Doherty eventually sealed it with a run of 40 and the pendulum swung the other way after the interval.

Breaks of 52 and 90 enabled Doherty to draw level at 3-3, he secured the seventh frame on the colours and then sealed victory with a break of 114.

Northern Ireland’s Joe Swail took only 76 minutes to whitewash Hong Kong’s Marco Fu 5-0 and set-up a second-round meeting with world No 3 John Higgins.

The world No 10 fired in breaks of 63, 58, 66, 34 and 59.

Dave Harold won four frames on the black in beating Davis 5-1 and now meets Doherty in the last 16.