Snooker: Hendry closing on magnificent seven

THERE HAVE been days when Stephen Hendry does not think about winning the Embassy World Championship but he cannot remember them. With every ball he pots, with every chalk of his cue, he visualises lifting the trophy. If that sounds obsessive it probably is, but the 30-year-old Scot is so close to snooker immortality he would be odd if it did not preoccupy him. And after beating James Wattana 13-7 he is nearer to it still.

No modern player has won the world title more than six times and Hendry is beached with Ray Reardon and Steve Davis on that high tide mark. The magnificent seven is his goal and after yesterday's success he is three matches away.

Not that he was getting carried away. Hendry, who now meets the unseeded Matthew Stevens, said: "I'm in the quarter-finals but I haven't made a century yet, so there's room for improvement. To win the world championship you have to get better in every round."

Improvement has been a recurring recent theme for Hendry because rumours of his demise were made to look premature by his capturing the Scottish Open in February. There was not the slightest hint of frailty either in the demolition of Wattana.

At 7-7 it could have gone either way; six frames later it had become a rout as Hendry potted remorselessly. If the match had been best of 99 he would have clinched it 50-7, and although a long night had beckoned, he had reached the quarter-finals in time to catch the end of EastEnders.

"The man's too good," Wattana said. "He proved that on the table. I felt good but he didn't leave a chance in the last three or four frames." Is Hendry back to his best? "He's pretty close to it."

If Hendry was on the rise, Ronnie O'Sullivan was so upbeat you were left to wonder what is more damaging: the troughs of depression he visits too often or the mood swings that speak of greater confusion. "A troubled talent" seemed too glib a description yesterday.

After he had won his first round match O'Sullivan spoke of depths that inclined him to give up snooker, but after beating Joe Perry 13-8 a blinding brightness appeared to have replaced the impenetrable dark of only a few days before.

"A lot can happen in three or four days," he said. "It's amazing. It really is. Some days you can feel down and others it just comes back and stays with you a while. No doubt it'll go sooner or later but you have to take it while you can.

"I've got most of my troubles out of the way. I had a few off the table at the start of the season but they've been put to bed now. I can look forward to three or four years trouble free."

Which is a psychological U-turn that would leave you wondering whether he was playing games if he had not pulled out of two tournaments this season, including November's UK Championship, in which he was defending champion, on medical advice. All snooker players get fed up and maybe he hides it less well, or maybe he is just trying to alleviate the expectation his wonderful skill generates.

For his sake you hope for the best, as indeed O'Sullivan did yesterday, and on the table at least there was evidence of normality, which in his case is a mixture of brilliance and errors so crass you wonder whether the same man is holding the cue.

Ahead 9-7 overnight, he had only one substantial break, 72, but he had enough long pots and kept enough of a grip on his discipline to brush aside Perry, who threatened to repeat his upset of Steve Davis in the first round when he was level at 6-6. O'Sullivan now meets the 1991 champion, John Parrott.

Concentration is O'Sullivan's Achilles' heel and Mark Williams has admitted to finding it elusive at times, although there was scant sign of his wavering yesterday as he converted a 9-7 advantage from Sunday into a 13-7 victory over Nick Walker.

Breaks of 55, 45, 83, 39 and 26 finished the match in less than 80 minutes and underlined that Williams, the fifth seed and the winner of three ranking events this season, is a credible contender.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (Sheffield): Today's order of play: 10am: M Williams (Wal) v K Doherty (Ire); R O'Sullivan (Eng) v J Parrott (Eng). 2.30pm: J Higgins (Sco) v S Lee (Eng); S Hendry (Sco) v M Stevens (Wal). 7pm: Williams v Doherty; O'Sullivan v Parrott.

Results, Digest, page 23