Ireland’s Ken Doherty sets up Neil Robertson clash in 2012 World Snooker Championship
After winning a thrilling final qualifying match against England’s Anthony Hamilton, the former World Snooker Champion from Ireland, Ken Doherty has breezed his place into the first round of the 2012 World Snooker Championship as he defeated Hamilton by
a close score line of 10-9. The Irishman will be meeting with the former Champion, Australia’s Neil Robertson in the opening round at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Doherty’s performance in the recent season has not been up to the mark as he crashed out of initial stages of many major ranking snooker events. He had a superb start in the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open and reached the semi-final clash of the event but
failed to defeat the Welsh Potting Machine, Mark Williams.
Apart from the Australian Open, Doherty was unable to surge into the advance stages of the any major tournament. But still he is hopeful of playing well in the 2012 World Snooker Championship and is eyeing to hit the final stages. His clash with Robertson
is expected to be one of the most tussling encounters of the Championship.
As far as Doherty’s form in the current season is concerned, he has participated in 46 matches and won 28 of them to possess 60.9 percent of match winning rate. On the other hand, his frame winning rate is a bit lower at 53.9 percent. He played 295 frames
during his run in the recent season and was able to win only 159 sets.
Meanwhile, Neil Robertson has a superb track record in the 2011-12 Snooker Season and has performed brilliantly in the major and minor ranking snooker events. The Thunder from Down Under clinched a couple of minor ranking events including the Players Tour
Championship (PTC) and Premier League Snooker tournament.
Robertson has grabbed a stunning match winning rate of 75.4 percent after winning 49 matches out of 65 clashes. However, his frame winning ratio is lower at 62.1 percent after winning 247 sets. Both Doherty and Robertson have played a couple of times against
each other. Robertson has a psychological advantage over the Irishman as he has defeated him in Grand Prix and Snooker Shootout. The odds are favouring Robertson as he is in good form.
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