Hendry shows form of old

Snooker World Championship: Stephen Hendry tonight rolled back the years with a vintage performance to become the first man …

Snooker World Championship:Stephen Hendry tonight rolled back the years with a vintage performance to become the first man to reach the Betfred.com World Championship quarter-finals. The Scot has endured some bleak seasons in the autumn of his career, and has not won a ranking title since 2005. Not since 1999 has he triumphed at the Crucible.

But 10 years down the line, and despite him turning 40 in January, nobody will be taking Hendry lightly now.

He was not the favourite for his match against Ding Junhui, the talented Chinese player who beat compatriot Liang Wenbo in the first round, but Hendry played Ding off the table this evening, winning five of seven frames from 8-8 to secure a 13-10 victory and reach the quarter-finals for the 18th time in his career.

The first two sessions had been dazzling, particularly the eight frames they played this morning in which both players registered centuries and produced terrific all-round play.

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Tonight was about Hendry, the man who has been Crucible champion on seven previous occasions and who knows how to grind out victories in snooker's most famous arena better than anyone.

Not that it was a grind tonight.

He began the session by taking the opening three frames, and it was as though the Hendry who had been struggling all season had been replaced by the 1989 model, the youngster who had designs on his first world title.

The Perthshire potter pinched the first frame after swerving out of a snooker to pot the final red, and then compiled a majestic 140 total clearance to secure the next.

That matched Ronnie O'Sullivan's break in the first round against Stuart Bingham, putting the pair on course to share the £10,000 top-break prize unless any player goes higher.

Hendry then followed that up with 86 in the next frame, and suddenly he was two frames away from victory.

He also had chances in the next frame, the 20th of the match, but Ding temporarily halted the victory charge and reduced Hendry's lead to two frames.

Ding, 22, lives in Sheffield for much of the year, and practises at the city's World Snooker Academy, and he had plenty of support.

He was also showing little in the way of nerves, which has arguably been his obvious shortcoming in his career to date.

But he could still do little before the mid-session interval to halt Hendry.

The pair had met at the same stage last year, with Hendry triumphing 13-7, however it had been a closer fight from the start this time.

Ding needed to win the first frame after their short break but it went Hendry's way thanks to a 51 break, and the winning line was in sight.

A defiant 121 break from Ding followed, and he looked set for another frame when he went 62-5 ahead in the next. Hendry cut that to 62-43 with a rapid 38 break, before laying a snooker behind the black.

Ding missed with his first effort, and left Hendry a sitter with the next. Needing no second invitation, Hendry cleared up to secure his last-eight place.

On the other table, Wales' Ryan Day was closing in on victory over Derbyshire cueman Nigel Bond, earning an 11-5 lead to take into tomorrow's concluding session.

He made a break of 134 in the 11th frame and at one stage seemed set to win the match inside two sessions, however Bond won two of the final frames of the evening to at least avoid humiliation.

Northern Ireland's Mark Allen will be playing catching up against Ronnie O'Sullivan tomorrow after the defending champion secured a 9-7 overnight lead.

Allen had come into the match insisting "favourites don't always win", but O'Sullivan is now just four frames from a place in the Betfred.com World Championship quarter-finals.

Allen resumed level at 4-4 but lost the final two frames of this afternoon's session to fall two frames behind ahead of tomorrow morning's conclusion.

O'Sullivan made breaks of 107, 46, 60, 93 and 59, while Allen had runs of 108, 70 and 115.

They shared the first six frames, with O'Sullivan struggling to shake off the dogged Antrim man.

Allen had a chance to pinch the 15th frame but went for one ambitious red too many and missed, with O'Sullivan knocking in his frame-winning 59.

A clinching 64 from O'Sullivan in the next gave him breathing space, even if he knows the youthful Allen will be determined to come back into the contest.

The pace of the session was a tremendous advert for the sport at a time when the authorities are considering whether a game with just six reds is the best way to attract a new generation of spectators.

Two frames won by O'Sullivan were timed at under nine minutes each, and no frame went beyond 18 minutes.

Allen has made three centuries in the match so far to O'Sullivan's one but must effectively win Saturday's session by 6-3 or better to reach the last eight.

Shaun Murphy was booed by some audience members as he began his second-round match against Marco Fu but the 2005 world champion had plenty to cheer by the end of their first session, having opened up a 7-1 lead.

Murphy was able to rely on strong support from the Sheffield audience when he lived locally for several years, and joked earlier in the week that his allocation of tickets used to be distributed to "the loudest shouters" from Rotherham.

The breakdown of his marriage last year, and his move to Sale, has changed the nature of his following, although in his opening match against Andrew Higginson the crowd was respectful.

The reason for the jeering as Murphy entered the arena was unclear.

Once the match got under way, Murphy began with a break of 115 and then added the second frame after Fu failed to clear the table.

After Murphy's break of 46, Fu replied with 58 but left a black in the jaws of a pocket and Murphy potted the colours from yellow to pink.

Fu responded with breaks of 60 and 47 to win the next frame, but Murphy took a hard-fought fourth to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.

Breaks of 73 and 77 pushed him into a 5-1 lead, then Murphy won the seventh frame after Fu left the brown over a baulk pocket during a safety exchange.

The performance from Fu was surprising, considering he had been so impressive against Joe Swail in the first round.

When he lost the scrappy final frame of the session too, the situation looked desperate for Fu.

The match was a repeat of December's Maplin UK Championship final, which Murphy won 10-9.