Wildey wrote:Pink Ball wrote:Cloud Strife wrote:TheRocket wrote:Its not that match against Doherty which will haunt Hendry. Its the final against Ebdon in 2002 which was a big body blow to him and maybe one reason (not the only one) for his rapid decline. He never recovered from that defeat.
It could have been the perfect career end for Hendry had he won that match. I'm pretty sure he thought there was no way he was gonna lose the match. That combined with the fact that Ebdon probably played his best match ever caused that very painful defeat in the end.
I believe Hendry's decline started to set in properly around 2006. Ironically, that was also the year Ebdon beat Hendry in the 2006 UK final, proving his 2002 win was no fluke. I dunno, maybe Hendry took him lightly in that match too?
Anyone who thinks Hendry starting declining in 1996 is either thick or too far up Hendry’s hole to see things clearly.
Hendry's Decline started in 1998 losing 9-0 to Marcus Campbell and losing 3 straight loses to Tony Drago was a indication of that the only 3 matches Drago won against him in 18 happened during 1998/1999. I Never fancied Hendry for the WC in 99 Higgins was miles the best player that tournament and after what had gone during that season things looked bleak for him.
Yea he picked himself up and even reached more triple crown finals 4 in fact and won a further 5 ranking tournaments played in 13 finals and even got back to world no 1 but that was more of a indication of how great a player he actually was rather than his form of old.
Not true.
Hendry actually did a lot wrong in 1998/99, that much I accept. But that's looking at a season in isolation, a few results in isolation. O'Sullivan was rubbish in 05/06, he lost a session 0-8 to Graeme Dott, someone he had a very good record against. A geriatric James Wattana whitewashed him.
Higgins was rubbish in 11/12, he was destroyed, bucking annihilated by a shitshow of a Stephen Hendry.
Hendry was rubbish at times in 98/99. That doesn't mean he was in decline. He wasn't. It means he was playing some bad snooker at the time. Happens even great players.
Hendry had many seasons thereafter that were far more solid, many tournaments where I felt he was playing even better than he had in his prime, but even then he often didn't win. People say the 1993 World Championship version of Hendry was his best version. The 2002 version was comfortably better, but he didn't even win the tournament, even though he probably deserved to.
Looking back I firmly believe to this day that we only started seeing Hendry entering proper decline in 05/06. Not 98/99.
Hendry was up against far stiffer competition and couldn't hack it anymore. Yes, more often than not he'd beat Doherty, Ebdon, Hunter, Stevens, and Lee, and he still kept an impressive record against the big three. The problem was beating three or even four of them in a row. He fell time and again.
by Cloud Strife » 31 Mar 2019 Read
