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| May 5, 2003 | Monday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1424 |
Williams, Doherty in final
SHEFFIELD (England), May 4: Mark Williams went into his World Championship showdown with Ken Doherty on Sunday insisting that his far less gruelling route to the final would not be an advantage.
Wales’ Williams, who continued his run of comfortable wins at the Crucible with a 17-8 semifinal win over Stephen Lee, has played only 72 frames in total on his way to his third final compared to the 98 that Doherty has featured in. The difference is the equivalent of an additional match and Doherty will also have to recover from the draining experience of coming back from 15-9 down to beat Paul Hunter 17-16 in his semifinal.
Doherty’s place in the final was secured on Saturday after England’s Hunter suffered one of the biggest collapses in the history of the championships.
Leading 15-9 overnight and needing just two more frames to book a place in the final for the first time in his career, the 24-year-old Hunter was left helpless as Doherty dramatically clawed his way back into the match.
The Irishman took the first five frames of the day to trail 14-15 before Hunter eventually allowed his nerves to settle as he edged ahead 16-14 to stand just one frame from victory.
However, it was Doherty’s experience which told as he took full advantage of his opponent’s increasingly error-prone game.
Things were a lot more straightforward for Williams who took a 10-6 overnight lead in to his semifinal against Lee, the seventh seed.—AFP
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