BANGKOK, March 7: Irish eyes were smiling in Bangkok Thursday as Thailand Masters title holder Ken Doherty and countryman Fergal O’Brien both reached the quarterfinals.

The two Dubliners were both in good form as Doherty defeated Dave Harold 5-2 and O’Brien swamped Peter Ebdon 5-1.

Doherty though was again slow out of the starting blocks as Harold led 2-0 to follow the Irishman trailing Joe Perry 3-0 in the previous round.

But Doherty stormed back to complete a 5-2 victory. “I’ll have to start quicker than this in my next match against Stephen Lee,” he said afterwards.

The world No. 4 produced a break of 101 in frame three and a 70 and 69 in the last two having led 3-2 on the pink.

O’Brien scored heavily to beat Ebdon recording breaks of 84, 82, 76 and 71 in four of the frames he won.

The match was all over in just under two hours with Ebdon picking up the third frame on the pink.

Welshman Mark Williams admitted after a decisive 5-0 victory over Paul Hunter that he was no longer interested in being ranked No. 1.

Williams, world No. 1 for the past two seasons, is currently in second place behind Ronnie O’Sullivan on the provisional rankings.

The Welshman who plays Fergal O’Brien for a place in the semi-finals, recorded breaks of 34, 36, 32 before a total clearance of 130 rounded off his afternoon’s work.

Results:

K. Doherty (Ire) bt D. Harold (Eng) 5-2; F O’Brien (Ire) bt P. Ebdon (Eng) 5-1; M Williams (Wal) bt P Hunter (Eng) 5-0.—AFP