Doherty in final

Ken Doherty continued his recent terrific run of form with a 6-2 victory over John Higgins and claim a record fifth final appearance in tournaments played in Malta yesterday.

This was a high quality Malta Cup encounter played by two players with three world titles between them. There was a half century break or better in every frame at the Hilton.

Both players have shown glimpses of their best form but the momentum was with Doherty after his great run at Wembley recently.

"I hit the ball really well today... the best I've played. I hit the ball really sweet and got some nice breaks.

"I love playing him, you have to play well against people like him even if he's not firing a 100 per cent. He's a tough man to beat and you have to be on top of your game," Doherty told worldsnooker.com.

"I made some great breaks under pressure. It doesn't get much better than this unless you're knocking centuries but this is probably a better result than beating Shaun Murphy at the Masters," the world No.4 added.

Higgins opened with a 52 to go one up. It looked like that could become two when Doherty was snookered behind the yellow. It took him four attempts to escape but he did so and then countered with a 76 to level.

The Dubliner then continued his heavy scoring by taking the next two frames with breaks of 90 and 70 to extend his lead at the interval to 3-1.

"I didn't miss a ball for three frames and it feels fantastic. You don't realise how good it feels... it hasn't felt like that for quite a few months. It's very frustrating when it doesn't come together but when it does it's fantastic," Doherty said.

On resumption, Higgins reduced his arrears when a 59 helped him take frame five but Doherty, who in Malta won in 1997, 2000 and 2006 and was runner-up in 1998, then made sure of his fifth final appearance with his third ton of the week, a 118. He followed that with breaks of 59 and 56.

Doherty said: "You still have to go out there with the belief that you can win the tournament and the way I'm playing at the moment I have the belief."

Murphy beats Ding

Holder Shaun Murphy came from 4-2 down late last night to beat Ding Junhui 6-5 and book his place in today's final.