SEVEN-time champion Stephen Hendry conjured up a classic Crucible comeback to send Mark Williams crashing out of the Betfred.com World Championship last night.
Williams, himself a two-time former Crucible winner, had opened up a 7-5 lead despite playing with a damaged tip.
The players went to the mid-session interval a frame ahead of schedule to allow Williams to carry out repairs to his cue. But it was
Hendry who returned from the break as the stronger player, reeling off five frames in a row to clinch a 10-7 triumph.
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Play our Snooker World Championship Predictor for a chance to win a £150 betWhen Hendry took the next three frames with breaks of 51, 83 and 53 to square the match, he had the lead and the momentum, and with nerves fraying for both players it was the 40-year-old Scot, who made his Crucible debut back in 1986, who proved the most clinical.
Drama had also come in the first frame of the evening, when Williams left his cue extension on the table while he attempted a complicated safety shot. He had forgotten putting it on the baize and was stunned to see the white flick by it as it headed for baulk, for the most unusual foul.
The key frame was the 13th, as Hendry battled back from 69-19 behind to take it by one point with a clearance of 51.
Williams had been closing in on an 8-5 lead, but the clearance signalled the turning point. Hendry, who will face either Ding Junhui or Liang Wenbo in the second round, said: "I came out and I didn't feel confident, I didn't truly believe I could win. But something is inside me that doesn't allow myself to give up and it just came to the fore, I just kept plugging away."
Hendry's fellow Scot Graeme Dott beat Barry Hawkins 10-8 in a high-quality match. Dott made breaks of 70, 91, 95, 69 and a match-winning 43 in the 18th frame, while Hawkins – who had led 5-4 at the start of the session – compiled runs of 105, 75 and 63.
Ali Carter of Essex progressed with a 10-5 victory over qualifier Gerard Greene of Northern Ireland. He now plays either six-time champion Steve Davis or Australian Neil Robertson.
Leicester potter Mark Selby made a decent start against Ricky Walden, leading 4-2.
Mark King won a tightly contested 16th frame to secure a 10-6 victory over fellow Englishman Rory McLeod, who became the first black man to compete at the World Championship. The match had lasted more than six-and-a-half hours over two previous sessions when the players had to be hauled off – with King leading 9-5 – to ensure the afternoon session was not disrupted.
Earlier, Northern Ireland's Mark Allen shot in a break of 129 on the way to a 7-2 lead against Martin Gould.
