Stephen Hendry considered retirement before win

Published on Monday 19 April 2010 22:18

STEPHEN Hendry will put thoughts of retirement to the back of his mind after roaring back to beat Chinese teenager Zhang Anda at the Betfred.com World Championship.

The greatest player of the modern era, seven times a winner at the Crucible, trailed 18-year-old Zhang 9-7 on Sunday night and that was the point at which quitting the game crossed his mind. But the Scot turned the match around to prevail 10-9 and secure his place in the second round.

Hendry, 41, had looked like making a humiliating first-round exit at the hands of a player who was not even born when he landed the first of his titles in Sheffield, in 1990, but now a clash with Masters champion Mark Selby awaits in the last 16.

Hendry produced a classic comeback, finishing with breaks of 89, 52 and 55. The 41-year-old said: "It's my 25th year here and the amount of times I've done that – I find something from somewhere.

"At 9-7 down I had my retirement speeches ready. I felt it just summed up a dismal season, going out in the first round of the World Championship.

"But something just clicked and I wish I knew how to do it because if I could produce it more often I'd be in contention to win tournaments. But it came just at the right time."

Meanwhile, Ronnie O'Sullivan mixed the sublime with the monotonous yesterday as he began his bid for a fourth title.

Sometimes quite brilliant, at other times chronically frustrating, the opening nine frames of his clash with Liang Wenbo provided an effective encapsulation of O'Sullivan's career. He developed a 7-2 lead to carry over into today's concluding session, and should have little trouble converting that advantage into an opening victory.

Centuries in the third and fourth frames, an 86 in the eighth and a 56 in the ninth which could easily have become a 147 were the highlights from the title favourite's perspective.

It emerged afterwards that television cameras had caught O'Sullivan making a rude gesture after missing a pot, however it is believed he was directing it at himself in frustration and no action is expected to be taken against him.

The man O'Sullivan beat in the 2008 final, Ali Carter, made sure of his place in the second round, where he will meet Joe Perry. The 30-year-old from Essex has jumped to third place in the provisional rankings for next season and yesterday finished off highly-rated Jamie Cope 10-4 in their first-round clash.

Earlier, former poker club croupier Martin Gould provided the first shock of the tournament as world No 8 Marco Fu folded against him. Qualifier Gould, the 28-year-old from London, inflicted the latest in a string of painful defeats for Hong Kong's Fu this season. He won 10-9, firing in a break of 90 in the final-frame decider, after Fu let an 8-6 lead to slide away.