Legends Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White and Ken Doherty are bringing a bucket-load of stardust to Wednesday’s World Championship qualifiers.
The illustrious trio, with eight world titles and 18 Crucible finals between them, will be battling it out in front of a mere handful of spectators at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport.
The challenging goal – to try and make it back just one more time to the greatest stage in snooker. Hendry and Doherty need four wins – and the Whirlwind three.
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Hendry is the joint-record seven-times winner, and has an intriguing and awkward clash with nephew James Cahill, the son of the sister of the Scot’s ex-wife.
Hendry’s comeback in 2020 after eight years retired has been underwhelming. He has played little with his wildcards, won three matches in three years, and only a single frame this season.
But his incredible achievements in the game have seen rival, world No1 and defending world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan insist Hendry’s status puts him beyond criticism.
The Rocket said: “Listen, Stephen does what Stephen wants. He is a seven-time world champion. If he wants to turn up and play, then great.
“If he doesn’t then he has won it all. He is an absolute legend of the sport. He can come in here and play in his underpants if he likes. We should all bow to him. He is a hero of mine.
“Others probably see him as just another player, but I don’t. I see him as one of the greatest sportsmen I have ever known. He is like Tiger Woods.
“He puts them all to shame. He has got balls, as we say. Big trousers. It is highly unlikely he will win four best-of-19 matches – but never write Stephen off.
“And no-one should criticise him. Even if he got beaten 10-0 and the highest break was 12, no-one has the right to criticise Stephen Hendry.”
The evergreen White, now 60, never won the World Championship but lost six finals at the Crucible – four of them to Hendry.
And the Whirlwind has been blowing a bit harder this season, showing some good form and picking up excellent wins over the likes of Judd Trump and Stephen Maguire.
Ahead of a clash with fellow Londoner Martin O’Donnell, White said: “My main thing is to carry into this some of the form I have shown this season.
“My tour card is on the line, I need a win or wins to try and make sure of that. If I do miss out there I might have a chance of a wild-card tour place. But I would much rather do it on my own merit.
“You can get in the habit of losing and the habit of winning, and at the moment because I am playing well I am getting through matches and the confidence is growing.”
Doherty has arguably the tie of the first round against record 12-times women’s world champion Reanne Evans - though he may have lost the battle for table one and the main TV cameras to Hendry.
The 53-year-old from Dublin, and 1997 world champion, only just edged past Evans at the same stage in the world qualifiers 10-8 eight years ago and knows he is in for another very tough test.
He said: “It feels like a very special day, with the three of us all in action. Both for the fans who do come along, and also for us out there.
“It feels unusual for the three of us to be there on the same day in this tournament trying to get to the Crucible.
“I have been having a lot of banter with Stephen in the past few days about which of us would be on the main table – him against James, or myself against Reanne.
“They are both really attractive games. I was winding him up something terrible that he would be relegated to table two, and I’d be ahead of the seven-times world champion!
“Let’s call it eight world championships between us out there…a festival of snooker, anyway. Let’s hope that we can give them a 50 break or two.”
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