Screenshot of World Taiwan Federation Social Media.
Chinanews Client Beijing, September 7 (Xing Rui) Eight years after his retirement, the 51-year-old "Billiard Emperor" Stephen Hendry received a World Snooker Tour invitation wild card.
This means that for at least two seasons in the future, fans will have the opportunity to re-see this familiar face on the court.
For Hendry's return, it exceeded many people's expectations.
Although there have been some rumors before this, the former "Billiard King" has been away from the game for 8 years, and his last championship has been traced back to 15 years ago.
Time is enough to turn the sea into a sacred field. Today's snooker world is unpredictable, but why does Hendry, who is 51 years old, pick up his club again?
As the former "Billiard King", Hendry has won countless honors in his 27-year career.
After retiring after accomplishing his accomplishments, he had to go to the competition to fight at the age when he could enjoy the happiness of family.
For many people, such a decision seems difficult to understand.
However, Hendry, who is over half a hundred years old, may have already let go of his obsession with fame and fortune. What remains in his heart is only his love for snooker.
The 7-time snooker world champion Stephen Hendry.
Image source: World Taiwan Federation
Back in 2012, Hendry, who had not been a champion for 7 years, ended his career sadly.
At that time Hendry had an almost crazy obsession with victory.
He once admitted personally: "Participating in the competition is to win the competition."
This desire to win helped Hendry reach the peak of his career to a certain extent.
Starting from defeating Jimmy White in 1990, winning the World Championships trophy for the first time, and becoming the youngest champion in the history of the tournament at the age of 21, Hendry's career took off like a rocket.
After the end of the World Championships, Hendry won the championship 6 times in the following 9 years, and between 1992 and 1996, achieved the feat of 5 consecutive World Championships.
To this day, Hendry's record of 7 championships in the World Championships is still untouched.
In addition, at the peak of Snooker's dominance, Hendry was the number one player in the world for eight consecutive years from 1990 to 1998, successfully replacing Steve Davis and becoming the then-Snooker. The well-deserved ruler of Knock.
In his 27-year career, his championship titles reached 72.
However, when victory became a habit, repeated failures began to destroy Hendry's self-esteem and confidence.
The 7-time snooker world champion Stephen Hendry.
Image source: World Taiwan Federation
After entering the millennium, Hendry can hardly maintain the peak level of the year as he ages.
The last time he won the championship before retiring, it would be back to 2005.
At the time Hendry defeated compatriot Graeme Dort in the Malta Cup final.
That was the last time the "Billiard King" tasted victory.
Since then, Hendry has fallen into the dilemma of "no harvest" in the rankings.
Regarding the declining state of his own, Hendry believes: "The fear of failure exceeds the desire for victory, and self-confidence is becoming less and less." Perhaps Hendry's departure was not willing.
It's just that he hasn't had a championship for a long time, which made him give up the fantasy of recreating the glory of the 90s.
The 7-time snooker world champion Stephen Hendry.
Image source: World Taiwan Federation
Even after leaving the game, Hendry has never left billiards in his life.
After retiring, he served as a guest commentator for snooker games, recorded instructional videos, and even became a promotion ambassador for Chinese billiards.
As people gradually sealed the miracle of the "Billiard Emperor" in their minds, the 51-year-old Hendry chose to re-emerge.
Only this time, his return has nothing to do with the outcome, just because of love.
In the veteran World Championships that just ended not long ago, veteran Jimmy White defeated Hendry in the semifinals and completed the "revenge" 30 years ago.
Although Hendry stopped in the semifinals, at this time he fell in love with the feeling of holding the club again.
As he himself said: "I don't have any expectations for my performance, but I feel that now is a good time to return to the game."
Data map: "Billiard Emperor" Hendry is hitting the ball.
Photo by Liu Zhankun
In this way, Hendry's return seems to be a hasty decision.
But in fact, Hendry is a typical "fatalist".
He always felt that fate led him to the path of snooker.
When he was 13, his father gave a snooker toy table as his Christmas gift.
Before that, he had never touched snooker.
Before embarking on a career path, Hendry tried football, tennis and other sports, but the results were mediocre.
That toy table made Hendry fall in love with snooker.
He started playing youth games at the age of 14, and became a professional player at the age of 16.
He played from Scotland to the whole country, and from the whole country to the world.
Including the subsequent depression in his career, Hendry felt that part of the reason was that he lost his "lucky club."
It was a cheap club with a value of only £40, and it followed Hendry for many years.
His coach once predicted: "With this worst club, Stephen will become the best snooker player in the world."
Indeed, Hender used this club to win 7 world championships.
In 2003, the club broke accidentally.
From then on, Hendry thought that the champion would miss him: "After the club broke, I probably only won the championship 7 or 8 times. After that, my condition changed."
Data map: On September 8, the 2014 World Snooker Shanghai Masters kicked off. "Rocket" O'Sullivan lost to McManus with an upset 3-5 in the first round and stopped in the round of 16.
Photo by Zhang Hengwei issued by China News Service
These unexpected accidents also accelerated Hendry's retirement afterwards.
In fact, many fans regret that Hendry retired too early. The other three in the "Four Kings of Snooker" Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins are still active in the arena. .
Despite the few decent moments, they all enjoyed the joy of the game.
Especially "Rocket" O'Sullivan, "reverse growth", he is still chasing after the miracles that Hendry once created.
In 2018, O'Sullivan surpassed Hendry's record of 18 "three major championships"; in 2020, the "Rockets" who won the World Championships set another record of 36 ranking champions of Hendry.
As time passed, the "Hendley-style legend" was being eaten away by O'Sullivan a little bit.
In addition to the above two records, the "Rocket" is only "one crown away" from the miracle of seven championships at the Hendry World Championships.
Of course, Hendry's comeback is obviously not to compete with anyone.
The old saying goes: "At fifty you know the fate of heaven."
The "Billiard King" who has passed half of his life must also understand: It's time to let go of the obsession with victory and simply enjoy the sport.
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