Snooker icon Stephen Hendry has revealed his best world title win. Still riding high from his recent Masters victory at Alexandra Palace, Shaun Murphy was able to look beyond his 10-7 victory over Kyren Wilson to ask Hendry about his career, and the answer came as a slight surprise.
During the Masters, Murphy faced Gary Wilson, Neil Robertson and Mark Allen en route to the final, even notching a maximum break in the semis. As both champions chatted on the Cue Tips YouTube channel, the discussion turned to Hendry’s incredible seven Snooker World Championship victories at the Crucible.
Claiming his first world title in 1990 at a mere 21 years old, Hendry remains the youngest ever to do so and racked up six further titles before the end of the decade. Pressed by Murphy to name his favourite, Hendry recalled his dominant 1993 win over Jimmy White as the performance he savoured more than any other World Championship victory.
“The one where I beat Jimmy [White] a session early,” Hendry admitted to Murphy. “I’d won every match quite convincingly and I look back on that because it just gives me pleasure with the way I played. I dominated every match, pretty much.
“The other ones are obviously probably more exciting–final frames and things like that in the first and the seventh – but I kind of look at performance more than the atmosphere.”
Snooker legend Hendry holds his 18-5 thrashing of fellow icon White as the pinnacle of his world title triumphs. Hendry, who also bested Murphy’s current coach, Peter Ebdon, for the 1996 crown, recently reflected on the Masters after wrongly predicting that Ronnie O’Sullivan would retain his title before withdrawing for medical reasons.
“Once again, I have been proven wrong. I keep on making my predictions. I predicted Ronnie would win either Saudi or the Masters,” Hendry told the Snooker Club podcast. “He lost the second round at Saudi and did not turn up for the Masters and I said, ‘Shaun would struggle to win while he is a pundit’. So, yeah, I’m pretty good at this sort of thing.
“All joking aside, it was a wonderful, dominant performance all week from Shaun Murphy. He just had something in his eyes and it all came together for him. He was a different player last week. I think working with Peter Ebdon has definitely focused him.
“He was completely focused. Whenever he was in his chair, he did not take his eyes off the table. It was all serious. A lot of the time he looks around and his mind wanders a bit, you can physically see his body language change and he is too relaxed. But he was on it all week, very impressive.”