Doherty's current form is spot on

Ken Doherty's form going into the first round of the Irish Masters has rarely been better. While the event moves a little up the M50 motorway, from Goff's to the Citywest Hotel, and sheds tobacco company Benson and Hedges for the greener Department of Health and Children, the contenders remain largely the same.

Except that Doherty has, importantly, two ranking tournament wins behind him.

A clutch of the best players in the world game, a few days in Dublin and the possibility of going home with £75,000 can't be bad. Hell, turn up to this invitational event, lose your first match and you still leave with a £6,000 bulge in your pocket.

For obvious reasons, eight of the world's top-ranked players have accepted the Irish offer and, along with four other wildcards, this makes it one of the players' favourite stops. But Doherty's recent success has indicated a mini-conversion towards consistency and is now the principal talking point of the snooker world.

He began the season ranked seventh and has now broken up the games "big four" of Mark Williams, John Higgins, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry with Hendry being bumped down the ladder.

Holding onto form over an entire season or even two successive tournaments has long been his achilles' heel and suitably he faces one of the most consistent players in the history of the game, Steve Davis, in the first round at 2 p.m. tomorrow. A victory over eight times winner Davis would then set up a meeting with the mercurial Ronnie O'Sullivan in the tournament's quarter-finals next Friday evening.

In becoming only the eighth player to win back-to-back world ranking titles by defeating Hendry 9-3 to win the Thailand Masters in Bangkok two weeks ago, the Dubliner appears to have broken his big win, big defeat cycle.

Hendry's margin and before him Paul Hunter (9-2) in the Regal Welsh Open suggests Doherty is a player no longer willing to accept the taunts of his manager Ian Doyle, who has regularly referred to the former World Champion as snooker's biggest underachiever.

Interestingly, Doherty's higher level of play coincides with his engagement to Dr Sarah Prasad, an Australian psychiatrist who attended the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin.

A little more settled perhaps, Doherty compiled breaks of 105, 85, 132 and 72 in the first session against Hendry and made further runs of 71, 51 and 91 in wrapping up the Thailand title.

"Results like this make all the hard work I've put into my game worthwhile," Doherty said. "Any win is great against Stephen and I always seem to play well against him because he forces you to raise your game and play your best stuff."

Fergal O'Brien has also given reason to feel that he's a contender. Having lost in the final of the Wembley Masters after an inspired evening session from the 22-year-old from Leeds, Paul Hunter, the general Irish profile is robust and healthy in the upper levels of the game.

O'Brien, who led 7-3 in the Wembley final, faces a tough opener against Matthew Stevens, last week ranked sixth in the world rankings, six places above O'Brien.

But with such a field any wavers will be ruthlessly exploited. John Higgins, the first player to record a maximum 147-break last year won't kick into competition until Friday. He will meet either Peter Ebdon or Stephen Lee.

World number one Mark Williams opens his competition on Thursday against the winner of O'Brien and Stevens. This year a maximum break will be rewarded with an Alfa Romeo 147 worth £17,000.

Jimmy White, one of the wild cards, is not the player of old but should draw the crowds. This year, for the first time in 21 years as a professional player, White will not be among the 32-man field for snooker's blue riband event in the crucible at the World Championships. The "Whirlwind" blowout came when he was beaten 10-7 by Dublin 25-year-old Michael Judge at Newport earlier in the season.

White's afternoon match is the first of the competition and begins today at 2.00 p.m. against Scotland's Alan McManus with Fergal O'Brien v Matthew Stevens meeting later at 7.15 p.m..