Ken Doherty has won his first qualifying match of the World Snooker Championships, defeating 10-time ladies' champ Reanne Evans at Ponds Forge last night.
Evans was hoping to make history by becoming the first woman to qualify for the main stages of the World Championships but fell just short, losing to the Dubliner by 10 frames to 8.
1997 champ and three-time finalist, Doherty, didn't make the best of starts and trailed 3-1 before winning four of the next five frames to lead 5-4 at the mid-session interval.
The tense match which stretched to over eight hours was nip and tuck all the way before Doherty edged into a two frame lead for the first time at 8-6.
Again Doherty made the gap two frames at 9-7 after winning a thrilling 16th frame but the Englishwoman kept up the pressure and pegged her opponent back to 9-8.
Evans looked favourite to level the match when Doherty was left on the baize needing a snooker with just the pink and black to pot but he did just that before a brilliant pink and a nervy black sealed the win coming up to 11:30pm.
Doherty needs to win two more qualifying matches before making it into the World Championships proper.
See how the Irish are getting on at The Masters here.
