Swail and Doherty win

Joe Swail will play John Higgins in the second round

Irish hopefuls Ken Doherty and Joe Swail both claimed first round victories in the Thailand Masters in Bangkok on Tuesday.

Doherty came from 3-0 down to defeat Joe Perry 5-3 while Swail whitewashed Hong Kong's Marco Fu.

However after opening his title defence in fine style, Ken Doherty was annoyed at being shunned by television bosses.

Doherty was surprised when the host broadcasters chose to show Dave Harold's first-round match against Steve Davis, rather than his encounter with Joe Perry.

"I didn't let if affect me, but I think it's a joke," said Doherty.

"Steve Davis is a legend. He's a fantastic ambassador for snooker and he's done a lot for the game here in Thailand but, after all, he's 17 places lower in the rankings than me.

Ken Doherty felt shunned by local TV

"I won the trophy here last year, but it obviously doesn't matter. What do you have to do?" said Doherty.

When Perry forged into a 3-0 lead, he looked set to avenge defeats by Doherty at the Regal Welsh Open in January and last week's China Open.

Runs of 66 and 58 gave Perry the opening two frames and and he stole the third frame on the black with a colours clearance after requiring a snooker.

The turning point, however, arrived in frame four.

With a chance to bring up 4-0, Perry failed to split the pack and surrendered position.

Davis defeat

Doherty fought back, opened his account with a late run of 40 and controlled the remainder of the match with breaks of 52, 90 and 114.

Swail, beaten 5-4 by unknown teenager Mark Selby in the first round of the China Open, hammered Fu as contributions of 63, 58, 66 and 59 saw him swiftly set up a second-round clash with John Higgins.

Doherty will next play Dave Harold who laboured for three hours to beat Davis 5-1.

Harold, whose solitary ranking event triumph came as a 500-1 outsider at the Bangkok-hosted 1993 Asian Open, stole three frames on the black and another on a re-spotted black.