Stephen Hendry
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| Born | 13 January 1969 , South Queensferry, Edinburgh |
|---|---|
| Sport country |  Scotland |
| Nickname | The Golden Boy, The Maestro, The Ice Man[1] |
| Professional | 1985– |
| Highest ranking | 1 (9 years) |
| Current ranking | 11 |
| Career winnings | UK£8,637,360[2] |
| Highest break | 147 (9 times) |
| Tournament wins | |
| Ranking | 36 |
| Non-ranking | 38 |
| World Champion | 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999 |
Stephen Gordon Hendry, MBE (born 13 January 1969 in South Queensferry, Edinburgh) is a Scottish professional snooker player. In 1990, he was the youngest-ever snooker World Champion, at the age of 21.[3] He has won the World Championship on six subsequent occasions and was snooker's world number one for eight consecutive years between 1990 and 1998, and again in 2006/2007. Hendry holds the distinction of holding the most world ranking titles (36) and leads the field with over 740 competitive century breaks.
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Career
Amateur years (1981–1985)
Hendry started playing snooker in 1981, aged 12. Two years later he won the Scottish U-16 Championship. He also appeared on BBC's Junior version of Pot Black. The following year he won the Scottish Amateur Championship and also became the youngest ever entrant in the World Amateur Championship. In 1985, after retaining the Scottish Amateur Championship, he turned professional. At 16 years and three months old he was the youngest ever professional.
Early professional years (1986–1988)
In his first season he reached the last 32 in the Mercantile Credit Classic and was the youngest ever Scottish Professional champion. In the next season he retained that title and reached the quarter-finals of both the Grand Prix and World Championship, and the semi-finals of the Mercantile Credit Classic. Hendry and Mike Hallett combined to win that year's World Doubles Championship. In 1987/88 Hendry won his first world ranking titles, the Grand Prix and the British Open. He also claimed three other tournament victories, retaining both the Scottish Professional Championship and the World Doubles Championship (with Hallett), and the Australian Masters. By the end of that season he was ranked world no. 4 and was voted the BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year.
No ranking titles came his way the following season, although he did win the New Zealand Masters and also his first Masters at Wembley.
World titles (1989–1999)
The 1989/90 season saw the beginning of Hendry's period of dominance. That year he won the UK Championship, Dubai Classic, Asian Open, Scottish Masters, Wembley Masters and his first World Championship, elevating him to the summit of the world rankings at the age of 21. The following season he set a record of five world ranking titles in a season and recorded a hat-trick of Masters. In 1991/92 Hendry regained the World title, adding to the victories in both the Grand Prix and the Welsh Open. He won the Masters, too, and achieved his first competitive 147 break, in the Matchroom League. A year later he retained both his World Championship title and a fifth consecutive Masters crown. The following season he retained the World Championship, narrowly beating Jimmy White 18–17 in the final.
In 1994/95, after being awarded an MBE, he won three ranking events, including the World and UK Championships, both of which he would retain the following year. His run of successes continued in 1995/96 with three titles, including the World Championship, where an 18–12 victory in the final against Peter Ebdon saw him equal the achievement of Ray Reardon and Steve Davis by notching up a sixth World crown. In 1997 he won BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year award for a second time and added another three ranking titles to his collection, although Ken Doherty denied him a sixth consecutive World crown by defeating him 18–12 in the final.
Hendry's dominant position in snooker appeared to be on the wane, as the only ranking event he won in the 1997/98 season was the Thailand Masters. He also lost his World no. 1 place for the first time since 1990 and was eliminated in the first round of the World Championship, losing heavily to White (4–10). 1998/99 began with an embarrassing 0–9 first-round loss in the UK Championship to unseeded Marcus Campbell. However, a resurgent Hendry won the last two events in the campaign – the Scottish Open and a record seventh World title. After beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 17–13 in their semi-final, he emerged as a convincing 18–11 winner over future double World Champion Mark Williams. This is Hendry's last World Championship title. He has since won only five ranking titles but has never dropped out of the Top 16 in the rankings.
1999–2010
In 1999/2000 he lifted one ranking title, the British Open, where he made the fifth 147 break of his career and the first maximum in a ranking final. By Hendry's high standards the 2000/01 season was a disappointment, as he failed to win a ranking event for the first time since 1988 season and reached only one final. Still he won the European Open the next season and came close to an eighth World Championship. Having eliminated defending champion O'Sullivan in the semi-finals (17–13), he lost narrowly to Ebdon in the final (17–18). The Welsh Open in 2002/03 and British Open in 2003/04 came his way, with his victory in the 2005 Malta Cup being his most recent ranking success. However, following O'Sullivan's decision to not enter the 2006 Malta Cup, Hendry was able to regain the world no. 1 position in 2005/06 due to consistency in reaching the latter stages of tournaments without, by his own admission, reproducing his form of old.[4] He reached the final of the 2006 UK Championship in a tournament memorable for his quarter final against Ronnie O'Sullivan, in which O'Sullivan unexpectedly forfeited the match at 4–1 down following a strong start by Hendry. The Scot then came back from 7–5 behind in his semi-final to defeat then-World Champion Graeme Dott 9–7, but lost in the final, 6–10, to Peter Ebdon. Following a disappointing season in 2007/2008 Hendry unexpectedly reached his 12th semi-final at the World Championships, a new record surpassing Steve Davis' 11. In doing so aged 39 he became the oldest player to reach the semi-finals of the tournament since Terry Griffiths in 1992.
Hendry started season 2008/09 with two losses in his first matches. He was beaten 1–5 by Stephen Lee in the Northern Ireland Trophy and 4–5 by Ricky Walden in the Shanghai Masters. He had more success in the Grand Prix, however, winning his first-round match with David Gilbert 5–4, before succumbing to the eventual winner, John Higgins, 2–5 in the next round. However in the next ranking event, the Bahrain Championship, he reached the semi-final, but he lost 4–6 to Matthew Stevens. In the next 3 professional tournaments, the UK Championship, the Masters and the Welsh Open, Hendry lost in the first round to Stephen Lee, Neil Robertson and Martin Gould respectively. He found some form in China Open, beating Robert Milkins and Ricky Walden, but lost his quarter-final match to Peter Ebdon, the eventual winner of the tournament. At the World Championship Hendry beat good friend Mark Williams 10–7 in first round. This win guaranteed Hendry a place in top sixteen of the rankings for next season. He then went on to win 13–10 against Ding Junhui. In that match Hendry reached another milestone: a 1000th frame won at the Crucible (also, in that very frame Hendry scored 140 points). On the 28 April, Hendry made a 147 maximum break against Shaun Murphy.[5] He eventually lost the match 13–11 to Murphy the next day to go out of the championship.[6] At the age of 40, he became the oldest player to make a maximum in a ranking tournament and only second player (after O'Sullivan) to make more than one 147 at the Crucible. Hendry ended up at no. 10 of world rankings, falling outside top eight for the first time since 1987/1988 season.
In the 2009/2010 season Hendry won his opening matches in every ranking tournament, however didn't manage to get to quarter-final until China Open, where he lost 4–5 to Mark Allen, despite at one time leading the match leading 4–2. In the Masters Hendry lost in first round. In the first round of the World Championship, Hendry defeated Chinese Anda Zhang. Hendry was 7–9 down in the best of 19 match, but managed to win 3 frames in row to win the match 10–9. At the press conference he confessed, that, had he lost the match, he would seriously consider retirement.[7] He lost in the second round 5–13 against Mark Selby. Apart from the Main Tour tournaments he won the seniors invitation tournament "Legends of Snooker" beating Ken Doherty 5–3 in the final. Other important event was the much publicised challenge match with Ding Junhui played in Beijing, which Hendry lost 6–13.
Recent years (2010–present)
In the 2010/2011 season season Hendry could not maintain his unbeaten run in the ranking events, as he lost it at the Shanghai Masters against Martin Gould by 5-2.
Status
Hendry has won 72 professional titles putting him second on the all-time list, behind Steve Davis. However, Hendry is the record holder for the number of ranking titles won, with 36. In addition, he has won four team titles as well as several amateur titles.
Hendry currently holds the record for the longest unbroken streak as a top-16 player (22 seasons). His other career records include: consecutive wins of a single tournament, longest consecutive winning streak (in ranking events), most centuries compiled in one match (7), most centuries compiled in one tournament (16), most centuries in one season (52), most years ranked world no.1, most career centuries (over 700) and highest total prize money. In the 2009 world championships, he regained joint possession (with O'Sullivan) of the record for most 147s compiled in competitive play (9), as well as most televised maximums (8) and became only the second player to compile more than one maximum at the Crucible.[8]
Playing style
Hendry tends to play at a steady pace. He often uses the now universal tactic of potting the blue with pace and heavy backspin on the white ball to cannon into the pack of reds and develop them for break-building. Aside from his break-building consistency, Hendry's ability at long potting was crucial to his success, as was his knack of potting balls in the middle pocket during a break. Throughout his career he has played very aggressively, more often than not attempting quite difficult pots and trying to break open the reds early in a break rather than waiting until all open reds have been potted. In this way he has compiled more than 700 competitive century breaks.[9] However, as the standard of his break-building and long potting have declined, his aggressive instincts have given his opponents more opportunities than used to be the case. Recently however, since working with Chris Henry, the man who coached Peter Ebdon to the 2002 World Championship, Hendry has placed a greater emphasis on his safety game which has been described by Clive Everton during commentary as being better than at any stage during his career.
Personal life
Hendry was brought up in Fife, where he attended Inverkeithing High School. He now lives in the small town of Auchterarder with his wife Mandy, whom he married in 1995, and sons Blaine (born 1996) and Carter (born 2004). He lives close to the Gleneagles and has a single-figure golf handicap. He enjoys poker and has appeared in more than one televised tournament. Hendry is also keenly interested in football, supporting Scottish side Hearts.
When returning to Scotland from the Thailand Open in September 2003, Hendry had his cue broken. The cue, which he had owned since he was aged 14 and had cost him £40, had been used when winning his 7 world titles.[10] Since the 11 September 2001 attacks, snooker players have been required to put their cues in the holds of aeroplanes, where they are susceptible to damage.[11]
Performance timeline
| Major Tournaments | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tournament | 1985/ 1986 |
1986/ 1987 |
1987/ 1988 |
1988/ 1989 |
1989/ 1990 |
1990/ 1991 |
1991/ 1992 |
1992/ 1993 |
1993/ 1994 |
1994/ 1995 |
1995/ 1996 |
1996/ 1997 |
1997/ 1998 |
1998/ 1999 |
1999/ 2000 |
2000/ 2001 |
2001/ 2002 |
2002/ 2003 |
2003/ 2004 |
2004/ 2005 |
2005/ 2006 |
2006/ 2007 |
2007/ 2008 |
2008/ 2009 |
2009/ 2010 |
Career W-L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Championship | A | A | A | F | W | W | SF | QF | F | W | W | W | F | 1R | SF | SF | QF | QF | F | 2R | SF | F | 1R | 1R | 2R | 5 / 22 |
| Masters | A | A | A | W | W | W | W | W | F | QF | W | QF | F | 1R | QF | SF | QF | F | 1R | QF | 1R | SF | 1R | 1R | 1R | 6 / 22 |
| World Championship | 1R | QF | 2R | SF | W | QF | W | W | W | W | W | F | 1R | W | 1R | QF | F | QF | SF | QF | 1R | 2R | SF | QF | 2R | 7 / 25 |
| Performance Table Legend | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| A | did not participate in the tournament | #R | lost in the early rounds of the tournament |
| QF | advanced to but not past the quarterfinals | SF | advanced to but not past the semifinals |
| F | advanced to the final, tournament runner-up | W | won the tournament |
Career finals
Ranking event finals: 57 (36 titles, 21 runner-ups)
Non-ranking event finals
* It was decided by aggregate score over five frames. Team finals
Amateur finals
Awards
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