Ken Doherty is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter.
As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur Championship. Since turning professional in 1990, he has won six ranking tournaments, including the 1997 World Snooker Championship in which he defeated Stephen Hendry, inflicting Hendry’s first loss in a world final. Doherty came very close to breaking the Crucible curse, reaching the 1998 final where he lost out to John Higgins. He reached a third final in 2003, in which he was defeated by Mark Williams. In other triple crown events, he has been runner-up three times in the UK Championship and twice in the Masters.
Doherty has compiled more than 350 century breaks in professional competition. Since 2009, he has combined his playing career with commentating and punditry work.
Doherty became only the third player from outside the United Kingdom to win the World Championship when he beat Stephen Hendry 18–12 in the 1997 final, at the age of 27. He also reached the World Championship final in 1998 and 2003.
Doherty works on TV coverage of snooker matches with the BBC snooker coverage team. He became a regular commentator for the BBC starting with the 2009 Masters, following the side-lining of veteran expert Clive Everton. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he began working on ITV’s snooker coverage.
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