Doherty takes single-frame lead over Fu, Dott 5-4 ahead over Dorgham

Ken Doherty has a hard-fought 5-4 lead over Marco Fu after the first session of their World Championship second-round qualifier.

The Irish veteran took a 2-0 lead over fellow stalwart Fu, and found himself 36-4 up before missing a long red to set up a period of safety play.

While Fu put himself back in contention at 37-23, both players were struggling with long pots, though Doherty landed a difficult red to give himself the chance to close out the frame with just the colours remaining.

However Fu scrapped back to seize a final chance to pot the final black and halve the deficit.

Fu looked to be on course for a decent early break before confessing to a foul on the white, and Doherty went 40-9 up. He followed up a well-taken red with a rest with a poor miss on the blue, and Fu came back to the table.

As the player from Hong Kong worked his way to clear the remaining balls, he sunk a deft blue into the bottom left before clinching an equalising frame before the interval.

The two continued their battle after the restart and found themselves 51-50 in Doherty’s favour, with one red, and all the colours, remaining on the table.

A superb double on the brown left him needing the blue to be mathematically clear, and he played a safety to leave it tight with the blue on the right cushion.

Fu potted the blue after Doherty missed another double, and then sunk the pink to leave him with a hugely tough black to the middle-left as he trailed by two, before nailing an excellent effort to go ahead.

Doherty rode a couple of bad contacts as he battled back to end his losing streak and get back to 3-3.

Doherty then benefitted from a fluke to snooker Fu comprehensively to go 4-3 up, and at Fu then missed a black to allow his rival back in – only to be let off with an awful miss on the brown, and he then settled things at 4-4 as the session approached its final stages.

The final frame threatened to be a scrappy one as Doherty came to the table 16-11 but the reds spread against various cushions and the brown tight against the green on the right.

Doherty struggled and added just one more, and Fu built a 35-17 advantage before coming to the last three reds before having to play safe and Doherty returned to sink a long red as he edged a few points closer.

Fittingly for such a tight game, Doherty had three colours left when he came to the table 40-32 behind. He potted the blue to the top left, guided in the pink to the bottom left, before a routine black gave him the edge ahead of the evening session.

Experienced Scotsman, Graeme Dott, came up against Mostafa Dorgham in his qualifier, and he also took a 5-4 lead into the second session.

Three half century breaks guided Dott into his small lead, but he did not have it all his way.

Dott’s 62 break in the first frame put him ahead, but Dorgham scored 71 to level at 1-1. A 59 in the sixth frame for the Egyptian took him square at 3-3, before Dott bookend a Dorgham frame with breaks of 77 and 55 to go into the evening with a frame advantage.

Elsewhere in the early play, Julien Leclercq looks set to progress with a 7-2 lead over amateur Haydon Pinhey, and Fan Zhengyi has a 6-3 lead over fellow Chinese competitor Jian Jun.

One-time semi-finalist Andy Hicks ended his first session with a commanding 8-1 lead against Long Zehua, Dylan Emery trails Oliver Brown 5-4, Martin O’Donnell is 4-3 behind Ma Hailong, and Aaron Hill is 6-3 clear of Daniel Womersly.