White to face Lilley in UK Seniors Championship semi-finals; Doherty beats Hendry

Jimmy White cruised into the semi-finals of the UK Seniors Snooker Championship with a 4-1 win against Wayne Cooper.

Though unable to make a break of genuine frame-sealing substance at a single visit, White scored consistently throughout the contest, bounding into a 3-0 advantage.

The 2017 winner of this competition had his chance to progress without blemish but Cooper rallied, taking a prolonged fourth frame after a safety exchange to stay in the tournament.

The match looked far from over when White squandered two opportunities to seal while amongst the balls, but a missed brown from Cooper allowed White back in and he duly knocked in the required balls to reach the last four.

“I started off very good, but I missed a couple of easy balls to go 3-0 up,” White, told the BBC. “It was a bit of a scrappy match. lucky for me he missed the brown.”

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White will face David Lilley for a place in the final after the 46-year-old completed a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Joe Johnson.

Breaks of 76, 74, 58 and 59 secured Lilley the win amid a sloppy performance from former world champion Johnson, who struggled both with his potting and safety play and registered a high break of 29.

It sets up a rematch of the 2021 World Seniors Championship final, when Lilley ended White’s hopes of a three-peat to secure his first professional title.

“He beat me in Sheffield – he went 3-0 up and I managed to get it back to 5-3,” White said of a chance to take on Lilley. “It was a good game and hopefully it will be a good game tomorrow.”

Ken Doherty was the last man through to the semi-finals, the survivor of a strangely sloppy match against long-time rival Stephen Hendry.

The veterans collided 25 years on from their famous 1997 World Championship final at the Crucible, when Doherty claimed his only world title.

Doherty survived an early safety battle to nudge in front before Hendry squared things up at one frame apiece courtesy of a 61 break.

Another duel of wits and wills ensued in frame three, with the Irishman again emerging on top.

Doherty, growing into the match, then moved within a frame of the semi-finals as he again made the most of at times loose safety play from the seven-time world champion.

And, just as in Sheffield 25 years ago, it was Doherty who prevailed, the pair of regular commentary colleagues sharing a handshake after a match that perhaps won’t bring such warm reminisces as that famous 1997 final.

“It wasn’t a classic!” Doherty remarked having reached the semi-finals with a 4-1 win. “We both started to miss – it was a little bit contagious. It wasn’t one of our best games but it is nice to get over the line.

“We have massive respect for one another. I wish we could play a little bit better, but sometimes that is the way it is. We still enjoy it which is the important thing.”

Earlier, making reasonably unencumbered progress into the last four had been Peter Lines, who beat Kuldesh Johal 4-1.

Lines took a back-and-forth opener before Johal capitalised on a foul to level proceedings.

But three successive frames, including breaks of 60 and 69, took Lines through to face Doherty.