Stephen Hendry has given his typically frank review of performances at last week’s Masters, with displays described as disappointing, shocking and alarming.
Kyren Wilson lifted the Paul Hunter Trophy at Alexandra Palace on Sunday night, beating John Higgins 10-6 in the final.
It was a strange tournament, in some ways, with the first round very peculiar as all eight matches finished with a 6-2 scoreline.
Things did get a lot more competitive after that, with two deciding-frame victories in the quarter-finals and then two more on an epic semi-final Saturday.
Wilson was the star of the show as he landed the £350,000 top prize and a second Triple Crown title after the 2024 World Championship.
Chinese debutant Wu Yize also thoroughly impressed as he beat Shaun Murphy and Xiao Guodong before a narrow loss to the eventual champion in the semi-finals.
Hendry had some concerns for other players in the event, though, and some scathing reviews of others.
John Higgins
Higgins had a brilliant run to the final, beating Barry Hawkins, Zhao Xintong and Judd Trump, but described his own performance as ‘useless’ against Wilson.
Hendry was especially concerned about the 50-year-old’s drop off in form in the evening session, which he thought was ‘alarming’.
‘I don’t know what happened to John in the last session, whether he just ran out of steam. I don’t know whether late night finishes, he’s not at his best physically,’ Hendry said on World Snooker Tour’s Snooker Club podcast.
‘He did weaken really, really quickly. It was quite alarming to see how his game just completely dropped off after the interval in that match.
‘For whatever reason his game dropped off a cliff at the end. He missed a pink off the spot which was incredible.
‘He didn’t give up, but his body language gave the impression that he thought, “I can’t do this.” Even his safety play was average which is not like John.
‘I don’t know if it was a realisation to himself that his game was not good enough. He was like a boxer, John was on the ropes and just needed knocking down at the end.’
Judd Trump
World number one Judd Trump made the semis and looked likely to be in the final again as he led Higgins 3-0 and 5-3, but was beaten 6-5.
‘Trump was disappointing, he was disappointing, really,’ said Hendry. ‘At 3-0 he’s missed two so easy reds in the next frame when he was completely on top of the match. I said in the studio, John Higgins looked like he hadn’t been in a semi-final before. He looked so nervous, so edgy at the start of that match.
‘Judd should have been 4-0 up, there’s no doubt about it, then he probably would have won. Then later on he misses a straight brown off the spot to win 6-3.
‘I tipped Judd to win this event and, again, he flattered to deceive a little bit, the world number one. Looked great in the first round!’
Mark Williams and Mark Allen
Hendry was entirely dismissive of his old pal Mark Williams’ performance as he lost 6-2 to Mark Allen in round one, saying: ‘He was shocking. Williams was shocking.’
Allen did not escape a stern word either, with Hendry questioning his approach in his quarter-final loss to Trump.
‘Later in the tournament, the first four, five frames against Judd, it was kind of a hard watch,’ said the seven-time world champion.
‘If Mark ever sees this, he’ll probably say I’m talking nonsense, but every safety shot he plays seems to be a negative safety. It never seems to be a safety play that will open up the frame or create opportunities.
‘Everything is keeping it tight or risk-free, rather than finding a way to force a mistake to get in.
‘When you watch Ronnie [O’Sullivan] play safe, he virtually never plays a containing safety shot, his safety will always be a way of getting the frame going, trying to force a mistake and open things up, it’s an anti-containing safety shot.’
Kyren Wilson
It wasn’t all bad, though, with the champion earning praise from the six-time Masters champion for his aggressive, attacking approach.
‘Powerful snooker, very powerful snooker,’ Hendry said of Wilson. ‘It’s all about the balls hitting the leather, it’s really powerful snooker, aggressive snooker as well.
‘His break-building plays quite differently from a lot of the top players. He wants to get the pack open as soon as possible whereas a lot of the players now rely on their cue ball control. Pick off the reds and go into the pack when it’s absolutely necessary.
‘I love the way Kyren does it, his first opportunity the reds are everywhere and it gives him great chances to score.’
