Hendry and White Twenty Years On
Do you remember Italia 90, Gazza’s tears and that painful semi-final defeat to Germany? Well, believe it or not another twenty years of hurt have passed by since.
And, amazingly, that was the same year that Stephen Hendry beat Jimmy White in the first of their four Crucible finals. To put in perspective how long ago that really was, let’s look at other sporting achievements from the time.
In tennis, Stefan Edberg beat Boris Becker in the final at Wimbledon, and a 19-year-old by the name of Pete Sampras won the first of his 14 Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows and in Majorca, Rafael Nadal was celebrating…his fourth birthday.
In golf, Sir Nick Faldo won the Open and the Masters and a young left-hander, Phil Mickelson, won the US AMATEUR crown.
Linford Christie, Kris Akabussi and Colin Jackson all claimed gold medals at the European Championships in Split.
Darts had a new champion, as Phil Taylor won his first world championship at Lakeside.
Twenty years later, Hendry and White will once again do battle on one of snooker’s biggest stages at the 12BET.com UK Championship in Telford.
There would be a strong case for the two legends being hailed as “the greatest” and “the most popular” players of all time.
The Whirlwind, more of gentle breeze these days, can still play. His hunger for the game is perhaps greater now than at any time during his peak in the mid-90s and it wouldn't come as a huge shock if he reversed the outcome of most of their previous meetings.
He has seen off the challenge of ‘Gentleman’ Joe Perry including a superb 136 break, Adrian Gunnell and Adam Wicheard to reach the last 32 of the second most important event of the player’s season.
For the armchair fan, TV execs, sponsors and the media, the match up with Hendry is the stuff of dreams. Even the Sky Sports News ticker feed was carrying thestory.
And why not? After all, who wouldn’t love to see John McEnroe on Centre Court just one more time?
Nostalgia is one thing, but it could be argued that it alone, is not fuel for a sport’s future. Which must raise the question, where are the next generation of champions going to come from?
Elsewhere, other stars of years gone by had mixed results. Matthew Stevens, the champion in 2003 beat Robert Milkins 9-4 in the final qualifying round to set up a match with defending champion Ding Junhui. Former World Champion Ken Doherty battled past Rod Lawler 9-7, but Steve Davis suffered a heavy 9-2 defeat at the hands of Mark Joyce.
