Hendry manages to find rhythm against White
FORMER World Champion Stephen Hendry was closing in on victory in his World Championship qualifying match against old rival Jimmy White last night.
The Scot, so often Londoner White’s nemesis at the Crucible led 5-2 after finally finding his rhythm in a scrappy tie.
Honours were even after an error-strewn first two frames, whose only resemblance to their previous Crucible classics was in both players’ evident nerves.
White held the upper-hand in the opening frame but needed a number of attempts to get over the line as both players’ average shot times edged towards the half-minute mark.
After an early re-rack and multiple further mistakes by both players, Hendry scraped over the line in the second frame with a break of 34 to level the best-of-11 match at 1-1.
White seemed to be finding his rhythm at the start of the third frame, rattling in a pair of fine long pots with the rest, but was made to pay for his mistakes.
Requiring one snooker with pink and black remaining, Hendry duly got what he needed after a lengthy battle, to nudge 2-1 in front after more than 90 minutes of match action.
Hendry appeared all too aware of the attritional nature of the proceedings as he joked to referee Leo Scullion: “You’ve got a long night ahead of you.”
The Scot set about frame four in swifter fashion, posting breaks of 38 and 53 to establish a 3-1 advantage at the mid-session interval.
White seemed to be finding his rhythm at the start of the third frame, rattling in a pair of fine long pots with the rest, but was made to pay for his mistakes.
Requiring one snooker with pink and black remaining, Hendry
duly got what he needed after a lengthy battle, to nudge 2-1 in front after more than 90 minutes of match action.
Hendry appeared all too aware of the attritional nature of the proceedings as he joked to referee Leo Scullion: “You’ve got a long night ahead of you.”
The Scot set about frame four in swifter fashion, posting breaks of 38 and 53 to establish a 3-1 advantage at the mid-session interval.