Hendry hammers Hamilton to reach quarter-finals
Stephen Hendry gave himself a night off by completing a 13-3 trouncing of Anthony Hamilton with a session to spare to reach the quarter-finals of the Embassy World Championship.
The Scot, winner of the title a record seven times, became the first man into the last eight even though his performance peaked with a break of 108 in the opening frame of the match.
His form suffered primarily from then on because it was too easy. Hamilton offered token resistance and when Hendry saw the chance to close out the contest ahead of schedule he gratefully took it.
“In patches I felt good – I potted more long balls than in my first match,” said the world number three, whose quarter-final opponent will be Matthew Stevens or Jimmy White.
“At 9-2 and 10-2 it’s difficult to stay focused and I feel for the crowd - they have seen a very poor match. They paid good money and didn’t deserve that, but snooker is like that sometimes. You have to win any way you can.”
Hendry insisted it was merely the one-sided nature of the match that had contributed to the disappointing spectacle.
“When you have a big lead you relax and don’t concentrate as much,” added the 36-year-old. “It’s nice to finish a session early but it means nothing for the latter stages – it just gives you an extra half day off.”
Hamilton, the world number 25, has enjoyed a good season which could lift him into the top 16 but admitted he had failed to produce anything like his best against Hendry.
“It was all about the first session (Hamilton lost it 6-2) and I wasn’t really ready,” said the 33-year-old from Nottingham.
“It was too much of a jump in standard from my first match (a 10-8 win over David Gray) and you can’t kid yourself if you are not playing well.
“I had the right attitude but that’s only worth three frames to you. I knew I would get beaten because I’m just not playing well at the moment but I would have liked to have competed a bit more.”
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