Ken Doherty Snooker Retirement: 1997 Champion Ends Main-Tour Run
Ken Doherty snooker retirement is now official: the 1997 world champion has ended his main-tour career at 56 after saying the time was right. He will still play on the senior tour, closing one chapter without leaving snooker entirely.
Doherty on Morning Ireland
Doherty said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the game became harder as he got older, and that fact sat behind the decision he has now made. “It just got harder as I got older,” he said. “So, I do think the time was right.”
He was even more direct about the timing when he added, “I just think it’s the right time to call it a day.” That line ended a main-tour run that began in 1990, when he turned professional.
From 1990 to 1997
The career arc is sharp. Doherty went professional in 1990, then reached the sport’s peak seven years later by beating Stephen Hendry at the Crucible to win the 1997 world championship. He said he still never tires of the memory: “I never get sick of hearing those nice bits of commentary at the end of the ’97 world championship.”
He also traced the roots of that ambition to two earlier champions. “I dreamt about winning the world championship when I saw [Alex] Higgins win it in ’82 and Dennis Taylor win it in ’85,” he said. “To emulate what they did and bring the cup back to Ireland have the open-top bus from the airport. That was just the dream of all dreams.”
Senior Tour After Main Tour
The complication in Doherty’s decision is that he is not walking away from competition altogether. He will continue on the senior tour, but he will no longer play on the main tour, ending the week-to-week grind that has defined his professional life since 1990.
He thanked the support behind the run as well. “I’ve had great support in Ireland, great support around the world and I really appreciate that,” he said. For readers who followed his 1997 title and the years after it, the change is clear: Doherty’s main-tour chapter has closed, but his cue stays in hand.
