Stephen Hendry has decided not to compete in the World Snooker Championship.
Snooker legend Stephen Hendry has declined the opportunity to compete in the Crucible.
Stephen Hendry has declared that he would not participate in the World Snooker Championship qualifications this
year. The great has won a joint-record seven Crucible titles, but has decided not to go for an eighth to beat Ronnie
O’Sullivan, instead concentrate on his TV responsibilities.
Hendry has lost all five of his matches this season and is on tour owing to a two-year invitational card he received in
2022. However, because the Scot is not one of the tournament’s top 16 seeds, he will have to battle in an extra
difficult qualifying stage against Neil Robertson, Jack Lisowski, and Hossein Vafaei in order to get to the main draw.
And Hendry has declined the offer, stating that his role as a pundit for the BBC at the Tour Championship and later
the World Championship will take priority.
“I’ve not entered the world qualifying this year.” Hendry said this on his WST Snooker Club podcast. “There are a few
reasons. It begins the day after the Tour Championship ends. I’ll have been working for TV all week and haven’t had
much time to practice, which I haven’t done.
“I won’t bother this year. There are so many things to do between the Tour Championship and the World
Championship, so I decided to skip it this year.”
Hendry retired in 2012 before returning to snooker in 2020, admitting that he has struggled to find motivation after
earlier being hailed as one of the greatest to pick up a cue.
“I’d play in front of 3,000 people in Hong Kong, to a full house,” he said. “And now I’m playing in a recreation center
with a swimming pool next to it. I mean, how do you get up there? That is the problem.
