Ken Doherty hasn’t decided whether or not he will try to extend his career on the World Snooker Tour.
Doherty was relegated from the professional circuit after a 10-5 defeat to Patrick Whelan in the World Snooker Championship qualifiers.
The Dubliner, who has been participating in recent years through an invitational tour card, had only infrequently played this season and needed a deep run in Sheffield to break into the top 64 of the world rankings.
Failure to do so means that the 1997 world champion will definitely finish the 2025/26 campaign outside the cut-off point for tour survival.
It hasn’t been confirmed whether or not Doherty will be offered another invitational tour card, although it’s widely predicted that he would considering how many times he has received it in the past.
Yet whether he would choose to renew his membership with the pro tour is another matter entirely.
“At this moment in time, I feel like I don’t want to play, but I don’t know,” Doherty said on RTÉ’s Inside Sport. “I have a few weeks to contemplate on it.”
“I’ve loved my time playing, but I can’t play like I used to and it gets very frustrating when you can’t do that.
“I can’t give it that time that I used to. As you get old, it’s hard to go in and give those long hours of practice in the snooker club.
“If I give up, I’ve had a great time. I’ll still play exhibitions, I’ll still maybe do the seniors, but I don’t know.
“I haven’t fully committed to playing or not committed to playing yet.”
Doherty has been competing on the World Snooker Tour since 1990 and reached a career high of number two in the world rankings.
He arrived at the professional setup with plenty of pedigree having already triumphed in both the IBSF World Amateur Championship and the IBSF World Under-21 Championship.
The 56 year-old’s crowning achievement came when he overcame then dominant force Stephen Hendry to lift the coveted world title in Sheffield in 1997.
He became only the second player from outside the UK to land the sport’s blue-riband prize in the Crucible era.
Doherty triumphed six times in ranking events and had near misses in numerous other major finals, including two other World Championship title deciders, three UK Championship finals, and two Masters finals.
In 2017, 2020, 2022, and 2024, the “Darlin’ of Dublin” dropped off the main tour in similar fashion but was immediately awarded an invitational card akin to how legend Jimmy White has survived for the last number of years.
Doherty, meanwhile, was among a number of familiar figures from the snooker world who attended a memorial service for John Virgo on Thursday.
Former player and broadcaster Virgo passed away in Spain earlier this year, so people were given the opportunity to pay their respects in Sheffield on what is the eve of the 2026 World Snooker Championship.
Doherty, who organised the service alongside Rob Walker, said Virgo was a “wonderful character” whose voice was “synonymous with snooker”.
Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, Jimmy White, Dennis Taylor, Mark Williams, John Higgins, and Virgo’s widow, Rosie Ries were among the others who were in attendance.
Featured photo credit: WST
