Ken Doherty squeezed by ten times ladies world champion Reanne Evans in a world championship qualifier in Ponds Forge last night. Doherty struggled to get into a rhythm and only some canny safety play allowed to eke out the last few frames.
In the immediate aftermath of his win, he praised his opponent and advanced the notion that she deserved a wildcard entry into every event next year, a proposal shot down by Barry Hearn today.
On his blog on Beanbag sports, Doherty opened up about his feelings facing Evans. He admitted he feared the prospect of being the first male player to lose to a woman in a world championship.
It's a different type of pressure playing a woman. All these stupid things go through your mind that if you do lose you'll be the first to lose to a woman in the world championship and that adds so much pressure alone.
Everyone is expecting you to win but they don't realise how good she is. Nobody would have liked to have drawn Reanne in the first round, there's no doubt about that. The fact is, if she was playing anybody else I would have been in the audience rooting her on. I was thinking about the slagging as well had I lost. It was just a different kind of pressure.
Doherty said he was more relaxed about his next game against Lee Walker and said he hoped he'd produce better snooker. He finished by reiterating his call for Evans to be given a wildcard for next year's tour.
