Today saw the opening sessions of the quarter final matches but tonight one story is dominating the snooker world,The retirement of the games most successful ever player Stephen Hendry.
In his autobiography Andre Agassi talks about how he decided to end his own professional career by saying that when you start to think about the end it is the end.With that in mind the signs were there a year ago when he contemplated retirement following defeat in last years World Championship. He decided then to give it one more year and although he managed to negotiate the qualifiers for most tournaments he couldn't make an impact.|
He revealed in his press conference that he made the decision to bow out after this championship about three months ago.This speaks volumes for the man that with this in mind he still managed to firstly qualify for the Crucible,then get a 147 in his first match and finally beat the defending champion to reach the quarters,It was here his run came to an end as he could not produce any form and lost 13-2 to Stephen Maguire.
A sad way to finish perhaps but he leaves the game with practically every record in the book and it is doubtful anyone will ever dominate the sport again the way he did in the 90's.
For me the memory I will take of Hendry was the way he didn't just walk around the table, he prowled around it and left his opponent in no doubt that this was his arena they had entered.He literally had people beaten before they ever hit a ball.It's only the greats that can produce this sort of aura about themselves and Hendry is certainly a great by any standard.It will be a strange snooker circuit without him.
In the other games Robertson leads O Sullivan 5-3 the same scoreline as Carter leads Jones, in the other game Stevens won all eight frames tonight to lead Day 11-5 overnight.
All these games finish tomorrow but all the headlines in the papers in the morning will be dominated by the retirement of "the Wonder Bairn"
No comments:
Post a Comment