Stephen Hendry retires
 

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:(

Sad news.

Never been a huge fan, then again I was never old enough to see him in his prime. Was hoping he'd do well this year (holding out for a Ronnie VS Hendry final) so I could at least perhaps see him win one final tournament, so this is a shame.

I can only assume Ronnie will be next, or near enough. That'll be a sad day.

Snooker tournaments won't be the same for me now, grew up with Hendry and Hunter as my two favourites, haven't really got anyone to back now.

Great player, will be a big loss to the game :( Will be weird without him there. Is he sticking around the studio?

Makes it all the more sadder knowing this was planned three months ago, meaning he could have bowed out with one final victory. It wasn't meant to be I guess.

Mind you...hasn't John Parrott retired yet he said this year he'd submitted an entry into the qualifiers (but got knocked out in the first match) after a 'chat around the dinner table' or something. Perhaps Hendry may do the same one day?

rip. x

Hendry looked out of sorts against Maguire in a one-sided World Championship quarter-final, and said he made the decision three months ago.

He said: "There's a few reasons - the schedule, the fact I'm not playing the snooker I want to play, and the fact I'm not enjoying practice.

"It was quite an easy decision."

He added: "I didn't tell many people [before the tournament], but this is me finished from tournament snooker."

Hendry looked back to his fluent best as he hit his third maximum - a Crucible record he shares with Ronnie O'Sullivan - in his first round defeat of Stuart Bingham.

He went on to beat defending champion Higgins 13-4 which prompted him to declare that he could win a record eighth world title.

But Hendry made a flurry of mistakes against Maguire, which his opponent ruthlessly punished to win the last-eight tie with a session to spare.

"I want to do other things now," he added. "I've got a lot of commitments now in China, which I've signed up for and I can't do that and play snooker because I would never be at home."

He is a great player,still, however I can understand him wanting to retire now.
After all reaching the quarter finals of the biggest tournament after all his years of playing and the success he has had is a really sensible, good and appropriate time to retire if he wanted to.

Sad news. Absolute legend

If you press the red button on the BBC Channels and go to that live snooker page, option 3 is Hendry's highlights from this tournament, he says in the interview at the end that he'll be working on the BBC commentary

The man who feasted during the weak era of snooker where his main Comp was the choke job that was jimmy White. Got his ass handed to him plenty of times by the GOAT Ronnie shame ronnie could never keep his head or he would have broke every recored Stephen has