Doherty had won their four most recent encounters, including a 9-8 victory in the Malta Cup final last month.

"A couple of mistakes early on cost me dear, " Doherty said afterwards. "I should have been in front at the interval, not playing catch up. I'm disappointed because the chance to win another tournament was right there."

The result was vital in the race to be world number one as Doherty had been closing the gap on Higgins who is second in the provisional rankings and hoping to significantly erode the advantage of Stephen Hendry heading into the World Championships in Sheffield next month.

"It's good to stop the rot against Ken, even though he didn't really fire out there today, " said Higgins. "It was a typical semi-final. You want to get through so badly you get more nervous than usual.

We both made our mistakes but luckily I managed to scramble over the line."

Higgins opened the scoring in the first frame with 38, launched by an outlandish fluke only to jaw a shortrange red and Doherty cleared with 78. Leading by 57 in the second, though, Doherty unforgivably missed a black off its spot. Higgins capitalised with a 65 clearance and added a disjointed third before dramatically snatching the fourth to go 3-1 ahead.

The interval fell at the right time for Doherty who compiled breaks of 45 and 87 in the fifth frame but wasted two chances early in the sixth.

His spirit was broken, however, and when he sportingly called himself for a foul when bridging awkwardly trying to pot a red, Higgins stepped in with a run of 55 to secure a place in today's final. He now plays Mark Williams after the Welshman beat Ding Jun Hui by six frames to two in their semi-final.