World ranking: 4
Last five seasons: 7-7-4-3-7
Date of birth: 17-09-69
Lives: Ranelagh, Dublin
Turned professional: 1990
Ranking tournament victories: 4 - Regal Welsh 1993, 2001; Embassy World Championship 1997; Rothmans Grand Prix 2000; Thailand Masters 2001
Last season's prize money: £265,040
Career prize money (up to start of 2001-2002 season): £2,228,061
Highest tournament break: 143 - European League 1995

Ken Doherty assured himself of a place in snooker's history books by becoming the first player from the Republic of Ireland to win the Embassy World Championship in 1997.

He kept Stephen Hendry waiting to claim a record seventh title with an against-the-odds 18-12 triumph.

In so doing, he became the first player to win both the world professional and amateur titles, having captured the latter in 1989.

More than 250,000 adoring fans lined the streets of Dublin to give him a hero's welcome when he brought the trophy back home.

Named Ireland's Sports Personality of the Year for his achievement, Doherty was hailed as "a fine ambassador and role model for the youth of the country" by the then president Mary Robinson.

The Manchester United fanatic also got to parade the trophy around the 'Theatre of Dreams' - Old Trafford - on one of his many trips to watch his footballing idols.

In 1991 - Doherty's first season as a professional - he came close to ousting six-times world champion Steve Davis in the first round at Sheffield. Davis won a classic encounter 10-8 and it was three years until Doherty returned to the Crucible.

In the meantime, he captured his first world ranking event, the 1993 Regal Welsh, added the Regal Masters and established himself as one of the game's leading players.

No first-time champion has ever successfully defended his title at the Crucible but Doherty made a valiant attempt at it in 1998 when he again reached the final. He closed from 10-5 down to trail John Higgins 13-11 going into the final session before the Scot pulled away to win 18-12.

The 2000-2001 season was the most successful of the Irishman's 11-year professional career and resulted in a rise of three places in the world rankings to No 4.

He won back-to-back ranking tournaments - the Regal Welsh and Thailand Masters - and was only denied a hat-trick by Peter Ebdon, who defeated him 9-7 in the final of the Regal Scottish in Aberdeen.

Beaten 13-6 by John Higgins in the quarter-finals of the Embassy World Championship, he said: "I came here with high hopes. This is the big one so it's disappointing to lose. But I've still had a good season and built myself a platform for next year."

A member of the Republic of Ireland team that reached the final of the Castrol-Honda World Cup in 1996, Doherty led his country to the final of the 2001 Coalite Nations Cup in Reading, where they were beaten 6-2 by Scotland.