Kenneth Joseph Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish retired professional snooker player who also works as a commentator and pundit on televised snooker broadcasts. From Ranelagh in Dublin, he is the sport's only world champion from the Republic of Ireland, having won the title in 1997, and one of only seven players from outside the United Kingdom to have won the title in the modern era. He is the only player to have been world under-21, world amateur and world professional champion.
After moving from Dublin to London to pursue his snooker career, Doherty won the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur Championship in 1989. He turned professional the following year and reached the first of his 17 ranking finals at the 1992 Grand Prix, losing 9–10 to Jimmy White. He won the first of his six ranking titles several months later at the 1993 Welsh Open, beating Alan McManus 9–7 in the final, which helped him enter the top 16 for the first time in the 1993–94 world rankings. At the 1997 World Snooker Championship, he ended Stephen Hendry's record 29-match winning streak at the Crucible with an 18–12 victory in the final.
Doherty was runner-up at two other World Championships. As defending champion at the 1998 event, he had an opportunity to break the Crucible curse but lost the final 12–18 to John Higgins. Facing Mark Williams in the 2003 final, Doherty recovered from 2–10 behind to tie the scores at 11–11 but lost 16–18. In other Triple Crown events, he was UK Championship runner-up three times (losing 5–10 to Hendry in 1994, 1–10 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2001 and 9–10 to Williams in 2002), and Masters runner-up twice (losing 8–10 to Higgins in 1999 and by the same score to Matthew Stevens in 2000).
Doherty won his final ranking title at the 2006 Malta Cup, where he defeated Higgins 9–8 in the final. He achieved his career highest ranking of second in the 2006/2007 rankings. After 15 consecutive seasons within the top 16, Doherty fell to 18th place in the 2008/2009 rankings and 44th place in the 2009/2010 rankings, after which he never regained a top-16 standing. From the end of the 2016–17 season, he finished outside the top 64 multiple times but remained on the professional tour though invitational tour cards; the most recent was in June 2024 for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 seasons. Doherty also competes on the World Seniors Tour, where he won the 2018 UK Seniors Championship and has twice been runner-up at the World Seniors Championship, in 2020 and 2024. Since 2012, he has been a director of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association; he also served from 2021 to 2024 as inaugural chair of the WPBSA Players organisation. He announced his retirement from professional snooker on 3 June 2026.
Born on 17 September 1969, Doherty grew up in a working-class Catholic family in Ranelagh, Dublin, with his three siblings, two older brothers and a younger sister. He first became interested in snooker when he started to watch the BBC programme Pot Black with his father at eight years old. At the time, Doherty particularly admired Alex Higgins. He received a miniature snooker table as a Christmas present, and soon afterwards began playing on full-sized tables at Jason's Snooker Hall in Ranelagh. When he was 13 years old, his father died from a heart attack. Shortly afterwards, he won the Irish Under-16 Championship. After leaving school, he moved to London to pursue his snooker career, receiving free accommodation and practice time at Ilford Snooker Centre courtesy of Irish professional Eugene Hughes. He won the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur Championship in 1989, and turned professional the following year.
Doherty appeared in two quarter-finals in his first season as a professional, at the 1991 Classic and the 1991 Irish Masters, being beaten 5–3 by Jimmy White on both occasions. In the following snooker year, he won the qualifying event for the 1992 Masters, though there he lost 1–5 to John Parrott in the first round. He also made it to the semi-finals of the 1992 British and Strachan Open, and reached the final of the 1992 Irish Masters. He was a finalist at the 1992 Grand Prix as well, narrowly losing 10–9 to Jimmy White. In the same event a year later, Doherty lost in the final again, this time 6–9 to Peter Ebdon.
Doherty's first ranking title was the 1993 Welsh Open, enough to take him into the top 16 in the world, where he remained until the 2007–08 season. He also won the 1993 Irish Professional Championship, was a semi-finalist at the 1993 International Open, and a quarter-finalist again at the 1993 Irish Masters. More quarter-final appearances followed at the 1994 Masters and the 1994 World Championship, his only run past the second round in the latter before 1997, and later on in the 1994 Dubai Classic, repeating his result from the previous edition of the event, down to the scoreline as he was beaten 5–4 both times. These weren't his only replicated outcomes, he also won the 1994 Pontins Professional just like he did last year, as well as the 1994 Scottish Masters after winning it in 1993 too. In November he made it to the final of the 1994 UK Championship, which he lost 5–10 to Stephen Hendry, then in December he reached the quarter-final stage of the 1994 European Open, where he was defeated 5–3 by Nigel Bond. In the second half of the season, he was in yet another quarter-final at the 1995 Irish Masters, and in two finals, at the 1995 Pontins Professional and the 1995 European League.
Doherty became only the third player from outside the United Kingdom (after Australian Horace Lindrum in 1952 and Canadian Cliff Thorburn in 1980) to win the World Championship when he beat Stephen Hendry 18–12 in the 1997 final, at the age of 27. He also reached the World Championship final in 1998, losing to John Higgins, and in 2003, losing narrowly to Mark Williams. The latter run was noted for some outstanding comebacks, including final-frame wins over Graeme Dott and Shaun Murphy, a 13–8 win over Higgins in a match where Doherty raced ahead 10–0 but Higgins fought back to 10–7, and a semi-final fightback from 9–15 to beat Paul Hunter 17–16. In that championship, Doherty played more frames than anyone before or since. In the final, Williams led 11–4, but Doherty fought back to 12–12 and 16–16. In frame 33, Doherty missed the penultimate red with a clearance easily available. Williams won that crucial frame and the next to prevail 18–16.
Doherty narrowly failed to achieve a maximum break when he missed a routine final black off its spot in the 15th frame of the 2000 Benson & Hedges Masters final against Matthew Stevens, a match Doherty eventually lost 10–8. This one pot would have seen him win an £80,000 sports car. However, his 140 break at least brought him the consolation of the £19,000 highest break prize. He did make a 147 break two years later though, when he won the Cue Club Pro-Am tournament in Killarney in 2002. He made light of his prize on television shortly afterwards, which was allegedly €300, a BMX bicycle and a toy Ferrari car. His first official maximum was compiled in 2012, during a first round win against Julian Treiber at the Paul Hunter Classic.
In 2001 Doherty became one of the few players who have won back-to-back ranking events, as he won the Welsh Open and the Thailand Masters, while also reaching the final of the next tournament, the Regal Scottish Open.
In the 2005 World Championship, Doherty beat Barry Pinches in the first round 10–5, winning the last 8 frames, but was knocked out in the second round by Alan McManus 13–11.
Following an average start to the 2005–06 season, Doherty won the Malta Cup in February 2006, beating John Higgins in the final. Doherty had trailed 8–5 at one stage but managed a stirring comeback, winning four frames in a row. He called the victory, which bridged a five-year gap, his "most important tournament win since the World Championship".
Doherty started brightly in the 2006 World Championship, winning his first match by defeating Barry Hawkins 10–1, then he beat Matthew Stevens 13–8, playing superbly to win the last five frames. He was the favourite in his quarter-final match against Marco Fu but lost 13–10. It was 8–8 as the final session started, but Doherty struggled despite winning a frame in which he required three snookers. Although he led 7–6, 8–7, 9–8 and 10–9, he could never quite take decisive advantage to win the match. Doherty admitted afterwards that he "blew it" but that he still had "a couple more years" to come back and win the title. He ended the 2005–06 season as the world number 2, his highest ranking ever.