Stephen Hendry's 4-0 victory over Ali Carter to reach the Brazil Masters semi-finals proves that he can still play the game, it is just inconsistency and concentration that have been letting him down of late.
To 2-0, Hendry played really well. Carter's head went in the third when he potted a red, attempted to roll up to the brown, left it short and, put back in, got down and lashed the cue ball off the side cushion and into the reds. That was 3-0.
His poise didn't really return and Hendry gratefully took advantage to sail through by way of whitewash.
Apart from winning the 110sport Legends event in Glenrothes two years ago, Hendry has not been in a final since the 2006 UK Championship.
He needs to beat Shaun Murphy to remedy that, no easy task but not an impossibility either.
The other semi-final is a repeat of the 2006 world final between Graeme Dott and Peter Ebdon.
That was a right old grind of course and Ebdon seems to be in the mood for similar this week but Dott played well in beating Brazilian wildcard Igor Figueiredo in the previous round and can contend with whatever is thrown at him.
16 comments:
a great line up of world champions.
mouth watering to me.
no doubt those who want to see the game played at 150mph will disagree and say its not proper snooker...
Shows me that the so called "Tough mental strength" he enjoyed in the 90's was more down to the opposition. He had no fear of them and was allowed to play at his best.
As soon as he enters a ranking event and the pressure is on, it is crumble time.
more trolling
obviously being 17 years older than he was in his prime has nothing to do with it
ronnies won about 3 rankers in 5 years. bravo!
I hope he will win this one. Not only because he deserves it but also to gain confidence to fight his way back in the top 16.
Hopefully we will look back at Brazil Masters as the tournament that kicked off an amazing Hendry career revival.
JJ, give your tongue a rest for 10 seconds. PLEASE.
There we go, a bit of pressure and Hendry can't cope.
“£45 to watch Ebdon v Dott...They'll get their money's worth alright!”
A friend reminds me of the irony.
Yeh I think many people who blame Hendry should look at Ronnie, He Is also ageing, and his forms has ditched him in the last 3-4 years! He was invisible Hendry, but age has beaten him finally, as will all legends that has come and will come.
He Is also ageing, and his forms has ditched him in the last 3-4 years!
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Which is why he just won PTC1 and is still competing? Williams has just recently been WN1, Higgins is world champion.
Hendry's later stage has been woeful and age does not explain it all.
Could all the people who are convinced that snooker players and indeed other sportsmen who get older automatically lose their form explain why Phil Taylor is playing the best darts of his life in his 50s ?
Dave, it was mentioned on Russian Eurosport that Dott was once banned for failing the drug test. I honestly can't remember anything of the sort - can you please tell more about when and why that happened if it is true?!
No he's never failed a drugs test - unless he once tested postive for Irn Bru
has ronnie ever failed a drugs test?
in fact dave, could that be the subject of a blog. drugs in snooker (past)?
glad to see most people are ignoring seifers trolling attempts at starting an argument
Anonymous said...
Could all the people who are convinced that snooker players and indeed other sportsmen who get older automatically lose their form explain why Phil Taylor is playing the best darts of his life in his 50s ?
11:22 PM
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i dont remember reading anyone who said they AUTOMATICALLY lose their form....
looks to me that youve just made up what they typed.
Could all the people who are convinced that snooker players and indeed other sportsmen who get older automatically lose their form
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It was implied, and you are correct. Obviously athletic sports like Tennis, age does have a huge factor on ability but Snooker and Darts are very different. The truth of it is, Hendry's problems are in his mind. I think it began with the Masters defeat to Williams on re-spotted black. That put the seed of doubt in his mind, and today it is a tree.
Hendry won only 1 major after 1996 (age 27) and has had an awful tail end to his career compared to O'Sullivan, Higgins and Williams. He overachieved during the early to mid 90's but he has underachieved afterward. His biggest problem is that he won't adopt a B game and slug out some wins, he thinks he can pot people off the table like he used to do and today's player can also mop up his misses. As a result his confidence continues to shatter because he isn't getting any wins under his belt...
If he approached the game differently, he would get a few wins and his confidence would return. Sure, it is probably already a tad too late for that, because the process should have started when he was 30 not 40+.
Hendry might have had a poor winning record since the 2000's but my point is that he was still a semi-finalist- final player until 2007.
After 1999 his seventh world title his form disappears, not a coincidence but a factor of hendry losing his appetite, he had nothing more to aim for.
Age has made this worse he is now 40, many players at this age fight for top 32-64 places, Hendry still can come back to the top 16.
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