Stephen Hendry versus Joe Perry – Betfred.com World Snooker Championship 2011 – Preview
Stephen Hendry and Joe Perry are set to meet in the first round of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship 2011, which is being held from 16
April to 3 May, at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England.
It is a match not to be missed, as the King of Crucible, Hendry, takes on the Fen Potter, Perry. The most immediate concern for the seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry will be his top 16 place,
as he will have to win the his first-round match to keep his unbroken run going.
It is one of the most interesting head to heads of the first round, as both players have met ten times before in a professional competition. Overall Henry leads Perry at 5-4, as they also played out
a draw in the 2009 Championship League.
Their first four meetings were all in the ranking events and were all won by Hendry. It was the Irish Open 1998-99 when they had their first clash and then in the quarter-finals of the 2000 China
Open. Their third meeting was the biggest of all, as they faced each other in the final of the 2001 European Open, and finally, they met for the fourth time in the British Open title in Brighton.
Meanwhile it was an exactly opposite story in their next four meetings, as they all were won by Perry. First two of these four came during the Championship League, afterwards it was in 2008 Premier
League at the Plymouth Pavilions and the fourth meeting came at the EPTC event in Gloucester. However, Hendry managed to stop Perry with a 4-0 win at the Welsh Open, held recently.
As far as their Crucible history is concerned, the Scottish leads the Englishman by miles. Hendry has played at the Crucible Theatre every year since 1986 and this is going to be his 25th successive
appearance. He has also lifted the world title seven times; in 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1999. Moreover, Hendry was also a runner-up in the 1997 and 2002 world championship.
36-year-old Perry, on the other hand, has participated nine times before and this is going to be his tenth appearance. Moreover, his credentials are not even near those of his opponent, as he has
only made it to the semi-final of the 2008 world championship.
The world number thirteen Hendry, apart from the early PTC sessions, started this year’s season poorly with a first round defeat to Martin Gould at the Shanghai Masters losing the top-16 position.
However, he gave better performances in the World Open, PTC event, UK Championship, German Masters and Welsh Open to regain a place in the top-16. Though he could not make it to the quarter-finals in any of these tournaments, he performed well by beating the
likes of Judd Trump, Jimmy White, Joe Perry, Mark Davis and Bjorn Haneveer.
The world number thirty, Perry has also had a similar story. He also started slow this season and suffered opening round defeats in the first three ranking events due to which he moved out of the
top-32 players. Since then however, the player seems to have learned from his mistakes. His best performance came during the German Masters where he reached the quarter-finals, before losing out to Mark Williams. He also made impressive performances in the
Welsh Open and the qualifying rounds of the world championship to secure a place in the top 32 players again.
Keeping the statistics in mind, both players have the ability to topple each other. However, Hendry's records and experience might just prove out to be the deciding factor in the game.
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