Читать книгу Life in the Frame - Ken Doherty - Страница 10
ОглавлениеShanghai, 11 September 2009
It’s hard to explain just how fantastic it feels to be at a snooker venue as a player rather than a TV pundit, which was pretty much the only reason I came to tournaments last season. I’ve just lost 5-0 to Shaun Murphy in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters. You might think that would be a huge disappointment, and I guess on one level it is, but Shaun is the world no.3 and a former world champion, he played superbly all through the match and it was my first ranking-event quarter-final in two and a half years. All things considered, I’m just happy to be here.
The day after my win over Rod Lawler at Prestatyn I beat my pal Fergal O’Brien 5-4 to qualify for the final stages. I knew that match wouldn’t be easy but I found that, having beaten Rod, I was more relaxed. I was able to go for shots that I might have backed away from before and I held myself together really well in the deciding frame. I rediscovered some of that fighting spirit that had been lacking when my confidence had begun to evaporate last season.
Having booked my place on the flight to China I won the second Pro Challenge Series event of the season. This is a new series of small events designed to give the players some additional playing opportunities and extra cash. The tournament I won was played using just six reds instead of the traditional 15 and, although it wasn’t on TV and wasn’t a big event, I was really chuffed to win. I’d made a concerted effort to play in as many events as I could and felt it was starting to pay off. Like most players, if I enter a tournament – big or small – I want to win it, so to come home with the trophy was another timely boost of confidence.
Because I was so far down the rankings, when I qualified for Shanghai I had to play a wildcard before my first-round match. I was drawn against Aditya Mehta, an Indian who was on the tour last season, and I beat him 5-0. Next up was Neil Robertson, ranked ninth in the world and a terrific long potter from Australia. I’d been commentating on him at the Crucible when he reached the World Championship semi-finals a few months earlier. In a way it was a weird feeling playing someone like him because I’d got used to the cubicles where I was up against lower-ranked players, but all of a sudden I was back in the big time with that buzz you get at major tournaments. Don’t get me wrong – it was brilliant to experience that again but it took some readjusting.
I beat Neil 5-4 and then I beat Barry Hawkins, also 5-4. They were two good, battling wins. I think I proved something, to myself and everyone else in the game, because I’m well aware that the other players would look at me and think, ‘Ken’s gone. He’s an easy draw now.’ That’s what I’d be thinking if I was looking from the outside in. I’d love to play someone like me who looks like he’s lost the plot and is apparently finished as a top player. I hope I showed them I’d got the bit back between my teeth. I’ve always been renowned as being a fierce competitor and I think I’ve reminded a few people that I can still compete.
Sport isn’t really a place for sympathy. Nor should it be. We all want to win and there’s very little mercy shown. It’s like being a wounded animal: you’re lying there bleeding and the hyenas circle, ready to come in for the kill and finish you off. You can sense that as a player but when you have a bit of confidence, when it comes back, your body language changes and everyone else can see it too. They can see that you fancy the job now. When people fear you, when you can sense that they fear you, it gives you such a psychological boost and it helps you to play better.
I’ve won five matches in the first tournament of the season compared with just two in the eight events last year, so the other players will be aware that I’ve turned some sort of corner. It’s up to me to keep it going but I feel completely different now to how I was on that train platform, tears welling in my eyes, thinking it was all over. It’s amazing what a bit of confidence does.
When you’re at the top and you’re winning, you kind of take it all for granted, as if it’s easy, but anyone who has ever picked up a cue, whatever standard they are, knows that the game is very difficult and I appreciate it more now after the couple of years I’ve had. I’ll never be complacent again. When you miss out on tournaments and have to watch them at home or from the commentary box it’s embarrassing. You feel you should be out there, not the guys you are watching, and you miss it like crazy.
Can I get back in the top 16? I believe I can. It’s going to be really tough but it’s definitely possible. This run in Shanghai has seen me rise 18 places to 37th in the latest list, so it shows what you can do with a few results. One thing is for sure: I’m looking forward to the rest of the season, whereas last year I couldn’t wait for it to end.
