SNOOKER
Stephen Hendry's legendary powers of recovery came to the fore again last night when he turned a two-frame deficit into a two-frame advantage against Darren Morgan.
The world No.1, seeking a record seventh Embassy World championship title in Sheffield, was considered vulnerable by many experts against in-form Morgan. In the opening session of the quarter-final that theory held some credence.
Hendry's Crucible crown wobbled slightly as Morgan went 5-3 up, with the Scot struggling to produce his usual fluent rhythm. But when the pair returned to the arena last evening, Hendry was much more himself and won six of the eight frames to lead 9-7.
A break of 77 in the ninth frame set the tone for the session and contributions of 46, 54, 71 and 99 followed as the 28-year-old turned on an exhibition to move 8-6 ahead.
His run of 99 in the fourteenth frame included an outrageous fluked red which piled on the agony for Morgan, yet failed to break his resolve.
The Welshman, who had knocked in a 98 himself in the tenth frame to show that the turnaround was in no way down to his loss of form, recorded a 90 in the penultimate frame to trail 8-7.
He looked set to draw level overnight when 49-0 up in the last, but ran out of position and Hendry rattled in a 74 to complete a memorable evening's work.
It was certainly not the first time Hendry had thrived when the pressure was on.
His amazing comebacks against Jimmy White in the 1992 world final and Mike Hallett to win the 1991 Masters proved he is never beaten until the final ball has been potted.
His position against Morgan was nowhere near as dramatic, but he has shown that his determination to battle back remains undimmed.
Young Welshman Lee Walker still has realistic hopes of becoming a surprise semi-finalist after keeping to within two frames of fourteenth seed Alain Robidoux.
World No.189 Walker, conqueror of Dave Harold and Alan McManus in the two previous rounds, was never behind in the opening session, which ended level at 4-4.
Neither player fired on all cylinders during a dour second stint - the highest break was a 58 from 21-year-old Walker - but French-Canadian Robidoux made a breakthrough to win the final two frames and go in 9-7 ahead.
qTWO of snooker's overseas ranking tournaments have been dropped from the 1997-98 calendar as part of the sport's blueprint for the future. The Asian Classic and European Open are being axed, reducing to eight the number of competitions that count towards ranking positions.
Another change to the game's structure means that 96 players will now compete in the final stages of all domestic ranking tournaments except the world championship, which will retain its present format. The top 64 in the world rankings will be joined by 32 players who come through a qualifying school at Plymouth in the summer.
For the two remaining overseas events, the German Open and Thailand Masters, only the world's top 16 and 16 players from a separate qualifying competition in Plymouth will travel. In 1998-99, qualifying events will take place around the world to guarantee an increased number of overseas players on the tour.
Nigel Oldfield, operations executive of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, said: ''The future for snooker is bright provided we carefully monitor the market place and take the necessary steps to ensure we are competitive on what is now the very commercial world of professional sport. The change in our qualifying system is only part of our plan for our future development. Another area we need to address is our policy towards the type of tournaments we stage outside the United Kingdom.
''The board and staff are committed to increasing the number of world ranking tournaments, but this will be achieved when the events themselves are commercially viable within the overall context of our business.''
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