Ken Doherty weighs up the UK Championship favourites and dark horses

11/21/2024 02:51 AM

The UK Championship looks as open as ever, with a number of the ‘usual suspects’ in contention, along with dark horses and dangerous qualifiers.

With seven different ranking event winners already this season and Mark Williams’ triumph at the Champion of Champions last week, there is no shortage of players feeling good about their game.

While it seems to be a line trotted out at a lot of events, the standard of qualifiers could genuinely be as strong as ever, with legitimate title contenders among them.

Ken Doherty, who played in there UK Championship finals, sees plenty of potential winners in the field.

‘You’d have to look at the usual suspects, I suppose, the likes of [Judd] Trump, [Kyren] Wilson, Mark Williams who played so well last week in the Champ of Champs,’ Doherty told Metro. Ronnie O’Sullivan, you can’t discount Ronnie, he loves the UK Championship, he’s the defending champion.

‘But I’m looking down the top 16 list and thinking who could come out of that pack and I like someone like Si Jiahui, he could make a name for himself. Xiao Guodong could continue on the way he played last week as well.

‘You look at maybe someone from here [qualifying] as well. Is it time for Jack Lisowski to have a really good run? Neil Robertson, no one’s going to want to play him if he gets there, or [Stuart] Bingham for that matter.

‘The usual suspects, Trump, O’Sullivan, [Mark] Selby, Mark Allen, Kyren Wilson, they’re going to be there and there abouts, a lot of winners there.’

Former champion Zhao Xintong also remains in contention, just one match away from qualifying for the Barbican in his first professional tournament since returning from a ban from the sport.

He faces a tough test in his final qualifier against Ricky Walden, but will be a threat if he can return to a place where he enjoyed his greatest triumph.

‘The way he’s played so far this week on the comeback trail, he’s been absolutely flying,’ said Doherty of Zhao. ‘He’s made a litany of breaks and he’ll continue to do so and he’ll be hard to stop.

‘He’s won the UK Championship so he’ll have great memories there and that’s so important when you go to a venue you like to play in. We’ve seen Ding [Junhui] get so much success there, [Stephen] Maguire, O’Sullivan, players have certain venues they love playing in, Zhao Xintong might have that for York and he’ll be really dangerous if he gets there.’

Ding has been to the last two finals in York and Doherty feels that positive vibes in a venue can count for a lot.

‘It’s a lot of memories, if you’ve played well there before, you feel at ease in certain venues compared to ones where you haven’t had much luck or success,’ he said. ‘You get good vibes, a spring in your step and you really look forward to going back.

‘Players who haven’t can think, “Oh Jesus, it’s just another venue I don’t like,” no matter who they play.

‘Even the greats, someone like John Higgins, who’s done well everywhere else he’s gone, but maybe that’s one venue that just doesn’t really regale with him that well.’

On his own experiences, Crafty Ken said: ‘One venue that I hated playing in? I don’t know. There’s so many!

‘I lost in two finals at the Barbican but I always enjoyed playing there. I had a nightmare one year against O’Sullivan and lost 10-1, played terrible, I was lucky to get one.

‘The other final was 10-9 to Williams and that was more of a heart-breaker. But I love the venue, the atmosphere, the city and I think it’s going to be a great week.’