Stephen Hendry to continue playing despite World Championship snooker defeat – 'Crucible return still a distant dream'

Stephen Hendry suffered a 10-4 defeat to James Cahill in the first round of World Championship qualifying at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The seven-time Crucible winner opened with a sparkling break of 102, his 777th century in the sport, but toiled for large swathes of the contest as world No. 99 Cahill claimed the next six frames with breaks of 77, 50, 54 and 57.

Ad A 75 break from Hendry was enough to claim his second frame of the match after Cahill produced 63, but it was a temporary reprieve as the Blackpool player dominated the ninth frame to end the first session 7-2 clear. World Championship‘No one has the right to criticise Hendry’ – O’Sullivan defends seven-time world champion12 HOURS AGO Another 70 from Cahill made it 8-2 before Hendry won the next two frames, including a 54 in the 11th frame, but it was never going to be enough to prompt a recovery as Cahill added another 67 in the 13th frame in claiming the final two frames to progress to the second qualifying round. Cahill will meet Lei Peifan chasing three more wins to reach the Crucible final stage.

Hendry admits he needs to commit more to practise sessions if he is offered a fresh two-year wildcard to continue playing. «I played too many bad shots really,» said Hendry, who retired in 2012 after a 13-2 defeat to Stephen Maguire in the Crucible quarter-finals before returning on a World Snooker Tour wildcard in 2021. «In a match when you follow one bad shot with another, it snowballs a bit.

»I started off great making two doubles in a century. That's unusual for me because I'm the worst doubler in the world. There was little bits and pieces here and there.