The issue of mental weariness going into the final match of this two-week Embassy World Championship was more closely aligned with the name of Ken Doherty than Mark Williams.

While Doherty has won two of the last three meetings between the pair, Williams took to the table yesterday afternoon having swept through his four previous matches, conceding just 19 frames.

Doherty, with 28 more frames played, clearly took the more scenic route, with his fraught semi-final against Paul Hunter lasting 10 hours 27 minutes, more than four hours longer than it took Williams to thrash Stephen Lee 16-8.

With that in mind, the Irishman took to the first session hoping for a fresh start, and while no one at The Crucible would dare prejudge the outcome given the complexion of his dual with Hunter, Doherty's position is more precarious than he would have liked, or, expected. The doughty resilience that took him past Shaun Murphy, Graeme Dott, John Higgins and Hunter has so far failed to dent the ruthlessly efficient 2000 champion. Doherty trails 11-5 overnight.

"I dreamt that I could come back and believed that I could come back. It's only when you stop believing that you've got no chance," Doherty had said on Saturday. "You have to feel it, you have to believe it, you have to visualise it. I've a lot of positive people in my team."

"I've gone to the well a couple of times this last few weeks but I have to do it once more over the next couple of days and it's going to be tough again. But, as I said, this is the World Championships, I have had long games but I won't use that as an excuse. This is too important to be tired for."

But just one frame from the opening eight from yesterday afternoon immediately had the 33-year-old cast in the chasing role. A few missed balls in the opening frames to let Williams on to the table proved costly, although a 76 break from Doherty in the third frame put the match at 2-1.

While Williams did not show the high-breaking ability of which he is eminently capable, the world number one's safety play and willingness to take on the long pots made him a more cutting opponent. Any lose play from Doherty, as he found out, was cruelly exposed.

Three visits from Williams brought the score to 3-1 and another three to 4-1. Four efforts with a 52 break high, then seven visits in a fractured seventh frame and the Welshman nosed well ahead, before a 74 break set him up at 7-1.

While Doherty importantly claimed the opening frame of the evening session, Williams replied with seamless, back-to-back 118 and 101 clearances, for 10-2.

If anything the growing disparity in the scoring allowed the 28-year-old Williams to flow even more freely, with his cue ball control and positional play impressive enough to fleetingly suggest that the match might end this afternoon.

While Doherty hit 79 for 10-3 and came back from 69-0 down for 10-4, Williams had already caused the major damage and with such an ominous, six-frame lead will enter today an even hotter favourite to win the trophy than before the match began. And once again in this competition The Crucible will question just how powerful Doherty's proven powers of recovery are.