Monday, 23 April 2012

Hendry Overcomes Bingham
























Stephen Hendry both cruised into the last 16 of the Betfred.com World Championship  on Sunday night.

Hendry set up a meetoing with John Higgins - which will be their first ever meeting at the Crucible - by seeing off Stuart Bingham.

The seven-time champion did the hard work yesterday by opening up an 8-1 lead, highlighted by a magnificent 147 break, and completed the job tonight after an early wobble.

Bingham won the first three frames with top breaks of 52 and 53. And he had a chance to reduce the gap further, but Hendry slotted in a long pot on the last red in frame 13 and cleared for 9-4. The Scot clinched victory in the next with a 96.

"8-1 is a tough lead, it's hard to get yourself up and have the same intensity as you had at the start of the match," said 43-year-old Hendry. "I was pretty flat tonight and I think it showed with some of the balls I was missing by sometimes embarrassing lengths, but I finished it off well. The frame before the interval was important and then I made a nice break in the last frame.

"I played really well yesterday and obviously it was topped off by a maximum. I think you learn from mistakes you make and you react differently to things. After the 147 I made against Shaun Murphy (2009) I let my concentration slip, but in this match I was just able to carry on in the next frame and just didn't feel like missing at any stage. It was a great feeling which doesn't come around too often for me these days.

"John Higgins and I have never played each other at the Crucible, which is a phenomenal stat. I can't wait, I'm really looking forward to it.

"Last year he won it not at his best at any stage, but he just refuses to go down. His B game is better than about 80% of other people's A game. He always refuses to get beat, he's a phenomenal competitor.

"Playing the first round as a qualifier, you've got less to lose which is a different feeling; most of the pressure is on the other guy. In that way you are a little bit more relaxed. But I've had so much success here that I still expect a lot of myself. It was very important that I qualified."

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