1997 world champion Ken Doherty has been chatting about his recent struggles and how it feels to be qualifying for the Masters this season for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The full quotes can be found at Setanta Sports here. Ken said:
“If I’d beaten Mark, I thought I would beat Stephen in the final – I was playing really well.
“It’s so weird this season that I’ve to try to qualify for the tournament; it’s hard because I did so well last season.
“I’m going through a horrible time – I know I’m good enough to play at tournaments – but I can’t seem to produce my form.”
Hopefully he is right because the situation is beginning to look increasingly serious for Ken as he continues to struggle this season, particularly in the qualifiers. Although next week’s Masters qualifiers are not going to bring him any ranking points, it would be useful going into the UK Championship next month to get a few confidence boosting few wins under his belt in the event he last won back in 1991.
He did look in decent shape in the World Series in Warsaw when he made the final recently and a 5-3 defeat to Barry Hawkins in Bahrain is no disgrace, but it’s just not quite happening at the moment for him. First up for him next week will be a tie with the winner of the tie between Atthasit Mahitthi and Michael Holt which will not be easy at all…