Doherty will play Paul Hunter, whom he thrashed 9-2 last year, after Hunter beat Graeme Dott 6-3 in the other semi-final.

"It'll be strange playing Paul again," said Doherty.

"It's something that's never happened to me before and I hope what happened last year gives me a psychological advantage."

Hendry edged into the lead at 4-3 but Doherty took the eighth frame and the turning point arrived in frame nine.

Doherty opened the scoring with a break of 44 but, bridging awkwardly, missed a red to a middle pocket.

Hendry countered with 56 but, with the option of guaranteed roll-up snooker available, took on a testing long green.

Scrappy frame

It failed to find the target, Doherty cleared the colours to snatch it on the pink and, helped by an early 52 in the 10th, ran away with the frame to secure victory.

In the other semi, Hunter complied breaks of 67, 59 and 54 to take a 3-1 lead at the mid-session interval.

A couple of half-centuries saw Dott fight back back to only trail 4-3.

However, Hunter, who took frame six with a well-compiled run of 95, took a scrappy eighth frame and finished strongly by powering in a 70 break.

Hunter, beaten in both of his previous two encounters with Dott, said: "That's the best I've played all week, without a doubt.

"I felt really comfortable and my safety was excellent. I knew before we started that it had to be because Graeme can grind out frames.

"Everything seemed to be going my way and that wasn't the case at the start of the season."