Perhaps due to fate, or perhaps the fate is not over, the opponent who came back to the first game of the World Championship after the comeback of Stephen Hendry, the "King of Crucible", is Jimmy White, the "People's Champion" who has been defeated again and again in the highest hall of snooker. In the early morning of April 6, Beijing time, this originally ordinary snooker World Championship qualifier also met early because the two protagonists of this feud met early, which made countless nostalgic fans look forward to it. In the end, Hendry beat White 6-3 to reach the second round.
Seven-time World Championship champion VS 6-time World Championship runner-up, one is 52 years old, the other is 58 years old, one has been retired for 9 years, and one can only rely on the wild card issued by the World Taiwan Federation to barely survive in the tour. Although snooker is not a sport with high physical requirements, the test and loss of brain power is indeed unmatched by most sports. When two 110-year-old veterans meet in the world championship qualifiers, their opponents are not only each other, but also declare war on the natural laws of aging.
Of course, the more enjoyable background is that the two met in the four finals in Crucible in the 1990s, and four of Hendry's seven World Championship champions stepped on Jimmy White's shoulders in the final and stood on the highest podium. The latter's simple black ball mistake in the 1994 final decider brought him a lifelong irreparable regret, not so much that Hendry "annoyed him" as it was to lament that fate was wrong and doomed to the world championship.
The last time the two played each other in an official ranking tournament was back at the 2010 British Championships, and have since met at the 2013 Seniors Championship. In terms of overall record, Hendry had an absolute advantage with 36 wins, 19 losses and 5 draws. In the first set, Hendry scored a far-court red ball on the offensive, but the main ball was not in a good position to enter the defense, and White played 65 points several times to take the next city. In the second set, Hendry also seized the opportunity of his opponent's mistakes several times to equalize the score 76-9. In the third set, the two had few consecutive offenses, accumulating points in piecemeal hits, and Hendry narrowly won 57-54. In the fourth set, there was finally a high score - Hendry scored 53 points to win another set 95-11 and lead 3-1.
In the fifth set, White began to fight back, but hendry was still more stable, taking it 65-33. The best scene came in the sixth inning, white single shot 58 points, and Hendry was single shot 66 points to reverse the limit 66-62, billiards Emperor won five consecutive sets, 5-1 to take the lead to grab the match point. Although White scored another 58 points in the 7th inning and won 65-41 in the 8th inning, Hendry's victory could not be reversed, and in the ninth he scored 52 points to make a 93-0 clean sheet to White, crossing the first threshold of returning to Crucible. It was also his first win since his comeback, after his comeback had been a 1-4 defeat to Matthew Celt in the Previous Gibraltar Open.
For White, 27 years later, Hendry is still a hurdle for him...
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