It meant the 42-year-old avoided the fate of fellow Crucible favourites Steve Davis and Jimmy White, who both missed out this week.

Davis and White both lost in the penultimate round of the preliminaries.

Doherty came in at the final stage because of his higher world ranking, and let a 9-7 lead slip before coming from 52-12 behind in the deciding frame with a gutsy 62 break. He goes into Monday's draw, with the tournament beginning next Saturday.

Stephen Hendry takes a 6-3 lead over China's Yu Delu into the concluding session of their match, having finished off with breaks of 129 and 107.

If the greats of past decades have had their time as serious world title contenders, then surely Belgium's Luca Brecel is in the next band of champions.

The 17-year-old will become the youngest player to reach the Crucible if he beats Essex cueman Mark King. King leads 5-4 overnight, with Brecel having won three rounds to reach this stage.

There were two victories for China, as Liu Chuang beat Stoke's Jamie Cope 10-7 and Leicester potter Tom Ford bowed out 10-9 to Cao Yupeng, who will be making his World Championship debut.

Wales had two wins too, as Jamie Jones beat Ricky Walden 10-2 to secure a first Crucible appearance, while Ryan Day came from 7-3 behind to oust Northern Ireland's Gerard Greene 10-8.

Mark Davis ended Robert Milkins' hopes, taking their contest 10-5.