Snooker: World Championships - Ronnie Hammers Hendry, ...Again
Stephen Hendry was hammered by Ronnie O'Sullivan in the semi finals of the World Championships. Ronnie was simply in blistering form and completed his win with a session to spare beating Hendry by 17 frames to 6.
Honours looked pretty even after the first session when the duo were locked at 4 frames each. But Ronnie looked awesome in the second session winning all 8 frames although Hendry had chances to win 2 or 3 of the frames. But for the majority of the session Ronnie was simply flying, doing to Hendry what Hendry has done to many others in the past. Ronnie had to win the third session 5-3 to stop the match going into the final session but in the end won it convincingly.
Ronnie had breaks of 64, 102, 93, 57, 87, 133, 135, 85, 70, 126, 68, 123, 56 and 59. Only 5 centuries in the match!! :o)
In the frames Hendry won, he had breaks of 140, 60, 53, 85 and 54. 5 breaks over 50 and he's lost 17-6, that's extremely high quality snooker!! This isn't Hendry's worst result against Ronnie, in their 2004 World Championship semi final, Ronnie demolished him 17-4, but this year Hendry did play much better when he got to the table. It did still look like someone slowly throttling an animal to death though and even I wanted Ronnie to win quickly so Hendry could get out of the arena.
After the match Hendry said Ronnie's play was the best he'd ever seen and said that if Ronnie continued to play like that in the final, Perry or Carter wouldn't have a chance of beating him. Obviously, just about everybody, except maybe Perry and Carter, would have to agree, he just doesn't miss. It has to be said though, Hendry in the 90s just didn't miss either, and he's the one with 7 world titles under his belt. I've never seen anybody look as natural or as fluent as Ronnie when he's on song though, that is a certainty
In the second semi final, Carter came back from 5-3 down to lead 9-7 after the second session. The last 2 sessions are played tomorrow at 10:00 and 19:00. I haven't really seen any of this match so can't really comment. I think it will take either player the best form of their lives to beat Ronnie in the final though.
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2 comments:
Well done Hendry. Nobody expected him to get to the Semi. I certainly didnt when he was 9-7 down to Mark Allen.
Had he lost to Mark Allen in the 1st round, he would've been under alot of pressure from the very start of the next season to hold on to his Top 16 place.
Hendry = Greatest ever.
Yes Stephen, I thought he would get beat by Allen and then thought he would get beat by Ding as well. Hendry's one of the best starters in the game thought, he knows the importance of winning the early frames, ...it seems to be the same with all the great players.
I think his form is pretty good and I don't think he'll be under too much pressure next season to keep his top 16 place. Ronnie psyches himself up more against Hendry than any other player and when he's in that mood will make any player look ordinary.
As for Hendry being the greatest ever, well I agree, his results and career show that's the case.
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