Hendry to face Doherty in last eight

SNOOKER: Stephen Hendry last night booked his place in the quarter-finals of the Embassy World Snooker Championship against Ireland's Ken Doherty.

Hendry brushed aside Welshman Anthony Davies 13-3 after beginning last evening's session with a 6-2 lead.

The seven-time champion then dropped the first frame of the session to the unseeded Davies before winning seven consecutive frames to wrap up the win.

His compatriot John Higgins produced a devastating performance to lead another Scot, Graeme Dott, 8-0 in their second-round clash.

After inflicting a 10-1 defeat on James Wattana in his first-round match, Higgins carried on where he left off and scored three century breaks to move within five frames of a quarter-final place.

Dott has been through an emotional week after being told that May Lambie, wife of manager Alex and mother of his girlfriend, had tragically died of cancer during his first-round match with Robin Hull.

He battled bravely against Higgins - but in the end had no answer to the 26-year-old's consistent, heavy scoring.

Breaks of 41 and 71 were enough to clinch him the first two frames before a well-constructed 107 extended his lead. Dott could not halt the Higgins onslaught as another break of 72 left him four adrift at the mid-session interval.

The break did not affect Higgins' concentration as a frame-winning 101 moved him into a 5-0 lead. The world number three also won the next before a fantastic 124 clearance secured him the seventh.

Dott had an opportunity to build a frame-winning break in the eighth, but missed a simple red into the bottom corner.

Higgins was not about to let Dott off the hook and he clinched the frame to end a miserable session for the Glasgow professional.

In the other match, Stephen Lee looked in good touch as he opened up a 7-1 lead over Australian Quinten Hann. Hann reduced the deficit to 2-1 with a 53 break, but Lee took control after the mid-session interval.

The world number eight registered breaks of 64, 46, 136, 39 and 73 to give himself a great chance of reaching the last eight.

Ken Doherty edged a tense final-frame thriller with Mark King on Saturday to book his place in the quarter-finals against old rival Hendry.

Doherty looked comfortable when leading 11-7, but King refused to give in and pushed the 32-year-old all the way.

However, it was Doherty who showed coolness under pressure in the decider to eventually prevail 13-12.

Doherty was relieved to have prevailed and said after the marathon game: "It was a really, really tough match.

"He played some really tough match snooker out there. I haven't see him play for over a season and he surprised me a lot with how good his safety was.

"In the last session he came back at me again and it was getting really tense. The last frames were very tense."

Former world champion Mark Williams' erratic form continued late last night as he trailed Anthony Hamilton 9-7.