Stephen Hendry

Stephen Hendry

Hendry at the 2011 Paul Hunter Classic
Born	(1969-01-13) 13 January 1969 (age 48) South Queensferry, Edinburgh, Scotland
Sport country	Scotland
Nickname	The King of The Crucible The Golden Boy The Maestro The Ice Man The Wonder/Golden Bairn The Great One
Professional	1985–2012
Highest ranking	1 (9 years)
Career winnings	£8.97 million
Highest break	147 (11 times)
Century breaks	775
Tournament wins
Ranking	36
Non-ranking	38
World Champion	1990 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1999

Stephen Gordon Hendry, MBE (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish former professional snooker player.

Hendry became the youngest professional snooker player in 1985 aged 16 and, in 1990, he was the youngest-ever snooker World Champion, at the age of 21. He won the World Championship seven times, a record in the modern era, and was snooker's world number one for eight consecutive seasons between 1990 and 1998, and again in 2006/2007. Hendry has the distinction of winning the most world ranking titles (36) and is second on the century break list behind Ronnie O'Sullivan with 775 competitive century breaks. He has made 11 competitive maximum breaks, second only to O'Sullivan with 13. In May 2012 he retired from the sport to concentrate on his commercial interests, and also works as a commentator for the BBC and ITV.

Hendry is regarded by snooker's professional body, and many commentators, pundits and former players to be one of the greatest players ever.

Hendry started playing snooker in 1981, aged 12, when his father, Gordon, bought him a child-sized snooker table as a Christmas present. Two years later he won the Scottish U-16 Championship. He also appeared on BBC's Junior version of Pot Black. The following year he won the Scottish Amateur Championship and also became the youngest ever entrant in the World Amateur Championship. In 1985, after retaining the Scottish Amateur Championship, he turned professional. At 16 years and three months old he was the youngest ever professional. Hendry was managed by entrepreneur Ian Doyle.

In his first season, he reached the last 32 in the Mercantile Credit Classic and was the youngest ever Scottish Professional champion. He also became the youngest player ever to qualify for the World Championship, a record he held until 2012 when Luca Brecel qualified at the age of 17 years and one month. He lost 8–10 to Willie Thorne who then applauded him out of the arena. In the next season he retained the Scottish Professional Championship title and reached the quarter-finals of both the Grand Prix and World Championship, losing 12–13 to defending champion Joe Johnson, and the semi-finals of the Mercantile Credit Classic. Hendry and Mike Hallett combined to win that year's World Doubles Championship. In 1987/88 Hendry won his first world ranking titles, the Grand Prix, beating Dennis Taylor 10–7 in the final, and the British Open. He also claimed three other tournament victories, retaining both the Scottish Professional Championship and the World Doubles Championship (with Hallett), and the Australian Masters. By the end of that season he was ranked world no. 4 and was voted the BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year.