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Ssb - day three: Hendry on top
Stephen Hendry was overall pretty solid in taking a 6-3 lead over Joe Perry in their first round match at the Betfred.com World Championship yesterday.
There were mistakes but his two centuries - taking his tally at the Crucible to 123 - were proof that his game is still there. His challenge in Sheffield will be sustaining it over long enough periods.
Hendry had a lot of support from the crowd, who respect him for his unparalleled record of achievement.
Indeed, he was very popular when he first came on the scene a quarter of a century ago as a young, attacking, exciting player - a little like Judd Trump now.
This being Britain, he ended up being booed now and again for being too successful but there was a warmth to the audience reaction to his match yesterday and I'd expect that to continue this afternoon.
Humility was not high on Ronnie O'Sullivan's list of priorities in an interview with yesterday's Daily Star on Sunday, in which he claimed: "I've done more for snooker than anybody else has ever done in the game."
The soap opera rolls into town today where, as ever, what happens on the table will be more important than the endless talk off it.
O'Sullivan has had a poor season but has never lost to Dominic Dale, has been practising hard and is quite capable of finding form and blowing the Welshman away.
I expect moments of brilliance from snooker's greatest ever natural talent. The test, for the whole tournament, will come in finding some consistency and knuckling down to compete when his game isn't firing on all cylinders.
Shaun Murphy says he is looking forward to playing O'Sullivan in the second round after a superb display to hammer Marcus Campbell 10-1.
Murphy is one of a number of players who have played so much snooker this season that they are fully sharp for the World Championship.
Mark Williams, a 10-5 winner over Ryan Day, and Ali Carter, who beat Dave Harold 10-3, are two others.
Meanwhile, spare a thought for Andrew Pagett. His match against Jamie Cope was by no means a classic but he fought back well from 9-5 down to trail only 9-7 and had the pink for 9-8 before this happened.
And the lights duly went out on his challenge.
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There were mistakes but his two centuries - taking his tally at the Crucible to 123 - were proof that his game is still there. His challenge in Sheffield will be sustaining it over long enough periods.
Hendry had a lot of support from the crowd, who respect him for his unparalleled record of achievement.
Indeed, he was very popular when he first came on the scene a quarter of a century ago as a young, attacking, exciting player - a little like Judd Trump now.
This being Britain, he ended up being booed now and again for being too successful but there was a warmth to the audience reaction to his match yesterday and I'd expect that to continue this afternoon.
Humility was not high on Ronnie O'Sullivan's list of priorities in an interview with yesterday's Daily Star on Sunday, in which he claimed: "I've done more for snooker than anybody else has ever done in the game."
The soap opera rolls into town today where, as ever, what happens on the table will be more important than the endless talk off it.
O'Sullivan has had a poor season but has never lost to Dominic Dale, has been practising hard and is quite capable of finding form and blowing the Welshman away.
I expect moments of brilliance from snooker's greatest ever natural talent. The test, for the whole tournament, will come in finding some consistency and knuckling down to compete when his game isn't firing on all cylinders.
Shaun Murphy says he is looking forward to playing O'Sullivan in the second round after a superb display to hammer Marcus Campbell 10-1.
Murphy is one of a number of players who have played so much snooker this season that they are fully sharp for the World Championship.
Mark Williams, a 10-5 winner over Ryan Day, and Ali Carter, who beat Dave Harold 10-3, are two others.
Meanwhile, spare a thought for Andrew Pagett. His match against Jamie Cope was by no means a classic but he fought back well from 9-5 down to trail only 9-7 and had the pink for 9-8 before this happened.
And the lights duly went out on his challenge.
More...