Ken Doherty will meet Stephen Lee after coming through a marathon encounter against Matthew Stevens with a 9-7 victory in the UK championship in York.

There was little to choose between the duo throughout, but for two highly-talented break-builders, it became very scrappy in last night's session.

Despite resuming with a run of 117, sixth seed Stevens could not add any further half-century contributions and world number four Doherty ground out a hard-fought success, a break of 69 securing his progression.

"It was always going to be a tough battle," said Doherty. "Matthew started like a train tonight, going 6-4 up, and I just had to keep fighting. I got back to 6-6 and then thought I'd blown it when I lost a frame I should have won and the last few frames were very tense. I think we were both feeling the pressure."

Defending champion John Higgins was dumped out last nightwith a comprehensive 9-2 quarter-final defeat to Stephen Lee.

The damage was done for the Scot in the opening session when he fell 7-1 behind.