World Championship Day 11

Stephen Hendry decided to call it a day after his defeat against
Stephen Maguire and retired as the most successful player in
snooker history.

The biggest news at The Crucible on Tuesday was the announcement by Stephen Hendry that he was to retire from the sport following his defeat against Stephen Maguire. The seven times world champion had decided several months ago that this would be his final season but his final match of his 27 year career ended in a 13-2 defeat against his fellow Scot. Following fantastic wins over Stuart Bingham in the first round where he recorded a 147 maximum and a second round win over John Higgins, Hendry started off on the back foot and trailed 7-1 after the morning session against Maguire. The lead was extended to 11-1 as Maguire won the next four and despite Hendry winning the 13^th frame, it was only putting off the inevitable as Maguire took the two remaining frames he needed to finish off his highly experienced compatriot with a session to spare.

The all-Welsh Quarter Final also kicked-off on Tuesday morning and it was a tight start between Matthew Stevens and the recently resurgent Ryan Day as the pair shared the first four frames. Day took the next three to go 5-2 up but Stevens won the last frame of the session to only trail by two going into the evening session. However the evening session could not have been more different with Stevens dominating proceedings and taking all eight frames to go 11-5 up. However Day later revealed that he had to play with a migrane which clearly hindered his performance.

The other two Quarter-Finals also got going in the afternoon session and it was Neil Robertson who takes a narrow 5-3 lead over Ronnie O’Sullivan into tomorrow’s final two sessions. The Aussie won the opening frame but The Rocket kept him in his seat for the next two frames by displaying his fantastic break-building abilities to go 2-1 ahead. Robertson took the 4^th and the two traded blows as the scores went 3-3 but The Masters champion took the final two frames of the session to hold a slender lead. Ali Carter also leads Welshman Jamie Jones by the same scoreline after their first session.