Ken Doherty & Fergal O’Brian reach quarters despite defeat against Mark Williams & Matthew Stevens
Republic of Ireland’s Ken Doherty and Fergal O’Brian finally made it to the knockout stage of 2011 World Cup Snooker, even after facing defeat at the hands of Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens of Wales, in their ultimate group match. The team from Republic
of Ireland lost to the Welshmen by a score of 2-3 at the Bangkok Convention Centre on Friday, July 15.
Doherty and O’Brian suffered an early 3-2 defeat at the hands of Pakistan’s Shahid Aftab and Muhammad Sajjad which created all sorts of troubles for the pair in the world cup. However, an easy 4-1 win over Wael Talat and Yasser El-Sherbini of Egypt brought
Ireland back in business.
Their third clash with Germany was a tough match, as they managed to win it in the decider frame by 3-2. Patrick Einsle and Lasse Münstermann of Germany played brilliantly in the match-up, but it was not their day as Doherty and O’Brian took the doubles
frame to nudge them down 3-2.
Wales was the toughest opponent for Ireland and one of the favourites to win the competition as well. World number one Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens gave no chance to the Irishmen to settle in the match and dominated the entire proceedings. Doherty and
O’Brian lost to the Welshmen by 3-2, however, they qualified for the knockout stage of 2011 World Cup Snooker.
While speaking to the local media, Doherty said, “All credit to the Welsh team. For fellows that were already through they played their hearts out. They could've taken their feet off the pedals but they couldn't have played us any harder. Matthew Stevens
needed three snookers in the last frame but carried on. They're playing with a lot of confidence”
He added, “It was tough going out there. We were playing two of the best players in the world in one-frame shootouts. When it got to 2-0 down we were under a lot of pressure but as the questions were asked we answered them. We can only get better. We haven't
played as well as we can do but we have grafted our hearts out.”
Republic of Ireland will meet China’s Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo in the quarter-final stage at Bangkok Convention Centre in Thailand on Saturday, July 16.
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