|
 |
 | | | You are in: Other Sports: Snooker: World Champs 2002 |
|
| |  Saturday, 4 May, 2002, 17:11 GMT 18:11 UK Hendry storms past O'Sullivan Hendry kept O'Sullivan away from the table (1) Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) 13-17 (5) Stephen Hendry (Sco) Stephen Hendry moved into his ninth Crucible final with a superb display in the last session of his semi-final against Ronnie O'Sullivan. The seven-times champion produced a supremely focused performance, but denied the pre-match criticism from his opponent had been a motivating factor. Despite vowing to send Hendry home early, defending champion O'Sullivan was put firmly in his place by the man looking for an unprecedented eighth world title.
"It's the World Championship, there's no better motivation than that," Hendry told the BBC. "I couldn't care less about the criticism, I don't care what goes on in the background. Ronnie's a fantastic player and it's all over and done with. "That's just peripheral stuff that doesn't matter." The pair came into Saturday's afternoon session locked at 12-12, but the Scot took five of the six frames played to end O'Sullivan's reign as champion. After the outstanding quality of the first three sessions, Saturday saw Hendry prove the more clinical in a series of scrappy frames. O'Sullivan looked in good form as he began with a break of 38 but failed to wrap up the opening frame when he slipped out of position, and Hendry capitalised with a 58. That proved to be the pattern for the afternoon, with O'Sullivan constantly losing position and Hendry doing just enough to take each frame.
The break clearly benefitted the Englishman, who fought back from the verge of defeat with an 82 clearance after Hendry had made 45 in the 29th frame. An unlikely comeback looked possible when O'Sullivan knocked in 51 in the next frame but when he ran out of position yet again, Hendry cleared with 65 to make yet another final. After the match O'Sullivan refused to show any remorse for his earlier verbal attack on Hendry. "I enjoyed the comments," he said. "You should buzz up the atmosphere like that." And O'Sullivan tried to remain upbeat despite losing his title. "I'm quite a happy chappy," he said. "I'm disappointed to lose but he's a great player. "You can't question Stephen Hendry as a snooker player, he's probably the greatest that ever lived." | |
Top World Champs 2002 stories now:  Links to more World Champs 2002 stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|  | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|  E-mail this story to a friend |
| |
| Links to more World Champs 2002 stories |
| | | ||
 | ||||
 | | Back to top
| ||
| ------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |
