On 3rd June 2026, Dublin snooker ace Ken Doherty announced he was retiring from the sport. Aged 56 at the time, he had long been uncompetitive at the highest level. His ranking has been outside the top 64 in the world for much of the past decade and closer to 100 for the past four years or so.
He remained on tour thanks to invitational cards but had more success on the World Seniors Tour. He made the final of the World Seniors Championship on two occasions, losing in both 2020 to Jimmy White, and 2024 to Brazilian Igor Figueiredo. However, in this article, we want to focus on his career on the main tour, partly to remind fans – and educate younger ones – about what a brilliant player he was.
1997 Sees Doherty Put Hendry to the Sword
At the height of Britpop in 1997, Ronnie O’Sullivan announced himself as the perfect rock god of snooker by making his first competitive maximum break. He did it at the World Snooker Championship that year, but his maximum against Mick Price in the last 32 was far from the biggest story of the tournament; Doherty’s incredible win took top billing.
Doherty’s run to the final was remarkable but the fact that he beat Stephen Hendry in the big game was even more amazing. At that time, Ronnie may have been the perfect bad boy for the era, but the real god of snooker was undoubtedly Hendry.
The Scot’s attacking snooker and break-building ability changed the game, and he won the world title in 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996. He would claim a record-breaking seventh title in 1999, and his dominance for almost the entire 1990s saw him seemingly playing snooker on a different level to everyone else.
Despite that, and the fact that his Irish opponent in the final was ranked number seven in the world, Doherty won 18-12 in the final. It ended a scarcely believable run of 29 wins in a row for Hendry at the Crucible in the World Championship.
Few gave the underdog a chance in a game for which Hendry was the overwhelming favourite with the bookmakers. But Doherty produced some of the best snooker of his life and that just happened to coincide with Hendry making several hugely uncharacteristic mistakes.
The Scot made nine centuries across the tournament to Doherty’s three, producing five of those in the final, in which the Irishman failed to make a single one. Hendry also made more 50+ scores (nine to seven), but he missed far too many important balls, often simple pots too. Doherty showed his trademark grit, used his excellent tactical game and was patient, taking few chances. It was a brilliant performance, and the clear highlight of a career that would span 36 years.
Number Two in the World
In a sport where rankings are fairly stable and there have been relatively few world number ones, that Doherty made it to second in the rankings was some achievement. His 36-year career, which began in 1990, overlapped with just about all the greats of the modern game. Steve Davis, Hendry, John Higgins, Mark Williams and Ronnie all kept him off top spot when Doherty himself was at his peak.
However, in the 2005/06 season, he made it to number two, thanks to a run of consistently excellent snooker. He spent much of the following campaign as the provisional world number one at a time when the rankings used an annual rather than a rolling format. However, in the end, he finished the year down in fourth, in part due to a first-round defeat at the World Championship.
World Snooker 2006/07 End of Season Rankings
| Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen Hendry | 36437 |
| 2 | Ken Doherty | 36137 |
| 3 | Ronnie O’Sullivan | 36012 |
| 4 | John Higgins | 34962 |
| 5 | Shaun Murphy | 32725 |
Two More World Finals
Doherty had several other career highlights as one might expect given his longevity. In all he won six ranking tournaments, back when such events were far less common than they are today. He also won 17 non-ranking finals, but perhaps his other major high points were, sadly, losses on the biggest stage of all.
1998: Exceptional Defence of Crown
Proving his performance in 1997 was no flash in the pan, the man from Ranelagh in County Dublin made it back to the final of the sport’s biggest event 12 months after the greatest moment in his professional life. He saw off Lee Walker, Stephen Lee, Matthew Stevens and then, in the semis, number four seed Mark Williams.
As in 1997, a Scot awaited in the final but this time it was John Higgins. The Wizard of Wishaw, seeded three, proved too good, claiming the first of his four world titles by 18 frames to 12. Even so, it was a truly valiant performance from Doherty.
2003: Williams Wins Classic Final
Doherty had something of a wait to return to a Crucible final but in 2003, he beat Shaun Murphy 10-9 in the first round when seeded five. He then beat Graeme Dott in a deciding frame before beating Higgins in the quarters and Paul Hunter in the semis. Sadly, Mark Williams saw him off 18-16 in a thrilling final in which Doherty trailed 10-2 then 11-5. The 2003 tournament really showed what the Irishman was all about, with those narrow victories and incredible, albeit failed, fightback in the final testament to his combative nature.
Doherty also made the final of the UK Championship on three occasions. The 1997 World Championship was his only Triple Crown win, but with UK Championship defeats to Hendry (1994), Ronnie (2001), and Williams (2002), one has to wonder how many more he might have won had he been born at a different time.