Ken Doherty ended his Champions Cup campaign on a high note with a brave comeback win over Stephen Lee at the Brighton Centre.

Doherty looked to be heading for the wooden spoon in Group A when he trailed world number five Lee 3-1.

Despite being blitzed by breaks of 92, 89 and 102, the former world champion from Dublin recovered to win 5-3.

It just was not Lee's day or tournament. The Wiltshire star, who like his Irish stablemate won't play again for another month, missed the chance of a maximum break in frame three after taking 12 reds and 11 blacks.

"It's disappointing to be going home so soon because I'm hitting the ball sweetly," said Doherty, who lost both his opening games against Mark Williams and Stephen Hendry 5-4.

"At least I know if I can repeat this form in the ranking events I should do well."

Doherty rallied well after the interval and compiled breaks of 94 and 69 to ensure Lee ended the competition without a victory. Both players picked up £7,500 for their stay on the south coast.

Earlier, Ronnie O'Sullivan made it three wins out of three in Group B with a 5-2 success over Matthew Stevens.

O'Sullivan, who won four frames in a row against last season's Embassy world finalist, now plays Mark Williams or Stephen Hendry for a place in Sunday's best of 13 frames final.

He insisted: "It didn't matter which group I was in because they're all top players in this tournament. I got a couple of kicks early on but you have to take things like that on the chin."

Breaks of 58 and 60 enabled Stevens to take a 2-1 lead but he wasn't to win another frame. The pivotal moment came in frame six with the Carmarthen-based player poised to level at 3-3 after O'Sullivan had knocked in runs of 40 and 70.

A potentially frame winning clearance ended on 63 when he missed the green into its own pocket. O'Sullivan mopped up the green and the four remaining colours to edge the frame by a point.

A break of 70 gave him the seventh frame 74 points to three and a place in the last four of the £200,000 event.

Stevens must hope for a White victory against Higgins today to enable him to qualify for the semi-finals.

TODAY (11.30 am best of nine)

Group A: M Williams (Wal) v S Hendry (Sco). Group B: J Higgins (Sco) v J White (Eng).)