Stephen Hendry: The Mindset of a Serial Winner – Part Three

03 Dec | BY Betway | MIN READ TIME |

In our exclusive five-part series, one of snooker's - and sport's - greatest ever competitors discusses what it is he loves about being the best

With a record 36 ranking titles – including seven World Championships – Stephen Hendry is snooker’s greatest winner.

In the third of our exclusive five-part series – which will run throughout the Betway UK Championship – Hendry reflects on his four Crucible finals against Jimmy White, why he relished beating the people’s champion and how, in the days before sports science, he prepared for the toughest encounters.

The man who was world No. 1 for eight successive years also reveals, in an accompanying video, what makes the best rivalries and why he prefers individual sports over team ones.

Jimmy at the Crucible

SH: Jimmy had all the talent in the world.

He has been labelled the greatest player never to win the World Championship and he will never win the World Championship now.

In a way it’s a shame because he has been a fantastic talent in the sport, but if you haven’t got what it takes to get over the winning line, then that’s something that’s lacking in you.

Jimmy had plenty of opportunties to win and didn’t, so you have to think: has he got that final ingredient?

Obviously, he hasn’t. History proves that.

Psychological edge

SH: I definitely had that over a lot of players.

If you keep winning and winning and winning, then a lot of the players are beat before they’ve even got on the table, which is a great position to be in.

Towards the end of my career, I lost that completely and everyone was beating me.

But when you’re the dominant player, you put fear into your opponents.

Whenever I played Jimmy in a final – even the first final in 1990 after I beat John Parrott in the semis to become world No. 1 for the first time – I knew there was no way he was beating me.

I just had that inner belief and feeling.

Obviously, there was the one in 1994 at 17-17 when, if he’d potted that easy black, he would have done.

But before the final started, I just didn’t think he could beat me.

Jimmy always had tremendous belief in himself and that he can win tournaments, but when it came to the crunch, there was always something lacking.

That’s the reason he never won the World Championship.

Playing the people’s champion

SH: I would use that as an inspiration and a way to focus me more, especially when walking into the Crucible or, even worse, Wembley, where there would be 2,500 Jimmy supporters.

Hearing boos can be quite disconcerting sometimes, but if you can use that, it’s a very useful tool.

I think sometimes there was more pressure on Jimmy because the expectation on him was so high. But that was something I enjoyed. Hendry-White Winning 10 successive frames in 1992

SH: It’s certainly slipping away from you at 14-8 down.

There were two frames to go in the afternoon session and I managed to win both.

The second of those, I potted a really good brown, which was one of the best shots of my career.

It’s a shot that 10 years later in my career, I might not have even taken it on because there was an easy safety shot to be played.

It was just one of the defining shots of my career.

The evening session at 14-10 had given Jimmy something to think about, but he should never have lost from that far in front.

Long matches are all about momentum and through me winning those two frames in the afternoon and the first in the evening, I then had the momentum.

From then on, I played some great snooker.

Before the days of sports psychology…

SH: My routine in the dressing room was literally sit down and read the newspaper. That was it.

The odd time my manager would come in and have a chat about something or, if I had coaches at the time, they’d maybe come in and see how I was feeling.

The rest of the time would be me sat with a newspaper. I just felt it was important to stay relaxed.

Obviously, in sport these days, a lot of sports psychologists come in and go through things. That was something I tried later on in my career.

When you can’t get that feeling naturally, you try and gain that concentration by someone else putting it in.

But it’s not the same. If It’s not there naturally, you can’t put it in.

I was a winner, basically. I had it in me to be naturally focused on what I had to do.

I didn’t need anyone to teach me or say things to myself. It was just there.