TNT Sports
Stephen Hendry won’t enter World Championship qualifying, place on tour uncertain - ‘I’m not going to bother’
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Published 27/03/2024 at 14:19 GMT
When Stephen Hendry’s return to professional snooker was confirmed, fans dreamt of seeing the seven-time world champion gracing the storied halls of the Crucible once more. However, this season, the legendary Scot won’t be there as he has confirmed that he will not be entering qualifying as he felt that were was too much else going on off the table for him at the moment.
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Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry has confirmed that he won’t be entering qualifying for the upcoming World Snooker Championship.
Hendry, 55, is currently part of the tour courtesy of a two-year invitational card that was given to him at the start of the 2022-23 season.
However, he has endured a barren campaign, with no wins from five matches so far, and speaking on the WST Snooker Club podcast, he revealed that he wouldn’t be taking part.
“I’ve not entered the world qualifying this year.” Hendry said.
“There’s a couple of reasons. It starts the day after the Tour Championship finishes. I’ll have been working for TV all week, and obviously not had much chance to practise, which I haven’t really done.
“I’m not going to bother this year. There’s a lot of things to do in between the Tour Championship and World Championship, so I thought I’d give it a miss this year.”
Hendry’s place in qualifying will be taken from the 2023 Q School Order of Merit.
What is still unclear is whether Hendry's invitational card is going to be renewed by the World Snooker Tour, and whether he even wants it to be having not played that regularly over the past two seasons.
With competition within the tour as fierce as it has ever been, despite Hendry’s absence there will still be some big names involved in qualifying.
Jack Lisowski, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Dominic Dale, Anthony McGill, Zhou Yuelong, Hossein Vafaei and Ryan Day will all be bidding to reach the finale at the Crucible.
The headline names in qualifying, however, will undoubtedly be former world champions Neil Robertson and Stuart Bingham.
As defending champion, Luca Brecel will go in as the top seed looking to retain the title that he won last year with the full list of top-16 seeds confirmed.
Crucible Top 16 Confirmed Players
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Stream top snooker action, including the World Snooker Championship, live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com
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