Ken Doherty. Picture by Monique Limbos

FORMER world champion Ken Doherty reached the second round of the World Championship for the first time since 2006 after producing the goods against seeded star Stuart Bingham.

The 1997 Crucible winner, who started the session 5-4 behind, won all this morning’s frames to seal a comfortable 10-5 victory despite at one stage trailing 3-0 and 5-3.

The Irishman, nicknamed The Darling of Dublin, will play John Higgins or Alan McManus in the next round after recording his first win in snooker’s biggest event since beating Matthew Stevens 13-8 in the second round eight years ago.

But it was a morning to forget for Bingham who played nowhere near the quality previously seen from him with many long pots going astray and positional play not up to the mark.

With just a single frame in it, the first frame proved a nervy and tight affair as both players struggled to settle into their stride and missed good opportunities to score big and clinch the frame.

But it was Doherty who grabbed the frame by the horns when he cleared from green to pink after Bingham left the green on trying to get out of a snooker.

Bingham was still struggling to settle and Doherty grew in confidence when he punished a bad safety from the world number six with a break of 55 to take a 6-5 lead. A break of 60 in the next frame helped stretched his lead further to 7-5.

More misses from an unsettled Bingham paved the way for Doherty to take an 8-5 lead going into the mid-session interval.

But the break in play saw no change to proceedings as the Irishman edged closer to a surprise with a break of 57.

And despite missing an early pink to the middle pocket, Doherty clinched the win with a break of 60 after Bingham missed the green off its spot – a shot which summed up his morning.

Meanwhile another surprise could be on the cards as another seed struggled on the second day of the World Championship.

Joe Perry, a former semi-finalist at this event, will have to overturn a 6-3 deficit against Jamie Burnett on Easter Monday if he is to reach the last 16 stage.

Burnett, playing at the Crucible for the first time in three years, made the perfect start with a break of 84 to take the first frame.

Breaks of 49 and 59 saw Perry take a 2-1 lead before Burnett won a scrappy fourth frame to level the scores.

The world number 15 regained the lead after the interval but Burnett dominated the remainder of the session as breaks of 76, 61 and 94 helped him to four successive frames and a three-frame overnight advantage.