Seven–times world champion Stephen Hendry, the most successful player in the history of the sport, plays in the qualifying rounds of snooker’s UK Championship next week, and his former coach Terry Griffiths believes he will be determined to get through to the finals in York.
Hendry dropped out of the top 16 for the first time in 23 years earlier this season after a run of poor results. He’s now ranked 20th and heads to the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester next week to try to qualify for the televised stages of snooker’s second biggest ranking event at York’s Barbican Centre from December 3 to 11.
Griffiths, world title-winner in 1979, said: “It’s always difficult for the top players when they drop into the qualifiers, but the good thing for Stephen is that he has played at Gloucester in PTC events this season.
“He would hate to miss any of the big ranking events, especially the UK and World Championship.”
Also taking part in the qualifiers, which run from November 6 to 9, are Steve Davis, Jimmy White, Ken Doherty, Peter Ebdon and Marco Fu.
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