For much of the opening day in Ken Doherty's quarter-final against John Higgins at the Embassy World Championship, the talk was of a possible record winning margin. By the end of it, conversation around Sheffield was dominated by the prospect of the most unlikely victory in the 76-year history of professional snooker.

After astonishingly winning the first 10 frames, Doherty lost the next six, setting up an intriguing final session today as the Dubliner goes in search of the three frames which would take him into the semi-finals for the first time in five years.

Doherty had been expected to show some reaction to his gruelling second round clash with Graeme Dott, which ended only 15 hours before he returned to the Crucible arena to face Higgins.

No such reaction was apparent, however, as Doherty potted confidently to win a patchy opening frame which dragged on for 26 minutes.

Higgins, who in contrast had not played since Saturday afternoon, showed some indication of the way he would struggle by missing a straightforward cut on a red at the start of the second.

Doherty pounced with a 57 break which set him up to win the frame, then capitalised on another early chance to run 107 in the next, which looked like being a 142 clearance until he missed the last red.

The Dubliner appeared to be playing with little fear, largely because of Higgins' inability to exert significant early pressure, and built on his bright start by striking a major blow in frame four.

Higgins got in first with 65 before running out of position, and when Doherty managed to engineer a chance, he cleared up with 66 to win on the black and claim an unexpected 4-0 interval lead.

On the resumption, a break of 50 secured the next frame, and when the Scot failed to escape from a snooker in the sixth, Doherty again showed his most fluent form to put together a clearance of 67.

He came from behind once again in frame seven, completing an unlikely clearance from the yellow, then ran 85 in the next to complete one of his best sessions with a stunning 8-0 lead.

When Doherty won the first two frames of the evening session, the second of them with a 112 clearance, he led 10-0. Bookmakers at the venue, who initially offered 2,000 to 1 against a Doherty whitewash, had by now reduced those odds to 3 to 1.

Higgins was showing signs that the prospect of such humiliation was causing him to panic. So great was his relief at finally clinching a frame in the 11th, he almost went on to compile a maximum, before narrowly missing on the 15th black.

From there, he closed to 10-4 without doing anything remarkable, then added frame 15 after Doherty had missed the final pink into a centre pocket. And just when Doherty looked set to earn some breathing space after leading 57-0 in the last of the day, Higgins gradually clawed his way back before clearing with 42 to win on the black and trail only 10-6 overnight.

Defending champion Peter Ebdon and Paul Hunter, who are playing for the right to meet the winner of the Higgins-Doherty match, ended the day level at 4-4.