Scot overcomes Yu to reach 26th consecutive World Championship
Seven-time champion Stephen Hendry held his nerve to book his place at yet another Betfred.com World Championship. Hendry, 43, succeeded where six-time champion Steve Davis and six-time runner-up Jimmy White both failed this week by coming through the qualifying tournament, beating Chinese player Yu Delu 10-6.
"I'm very pleased to be through," Hendry said. "I'm used to playing at the World Championship and it puts that little bit of extra pressure on you, to have to play an extra match to get there."
Hendry, who last had to qualify in 1988 and has been ever-present at the Crucible since 1986, has fallen to 23rd in the world rankings. He awaits Monday's draw, knowing he will have to take on one of the 16 seeded players. He reached the Crucible showpiece after firing in breaks of 73, 69, 76 and 88 in converting an overnight 6-3 lead into a 10-6 victory. On Saturday he recorded breaks of 129 and 107.
"I played quite nicely," Hendry said. "I won a lot of frames in one visit.
"The most important thing was to just go out with the mindset of needing to win the match, no matter how I played, just get the match won."
Meanwhile, Belgian teenager Luca Brecel shattered Hendry's record to become the youngest player to earn a place at the Crucible. Brecel, who at 17 years and 36 days old is two months younger than Hendry was in 1986, beat Essex's Mark King 10-8 in the final round of qualifying, his fourth win of the week. And he will feature in Monday's first-round draw for the event which begins in Sheffield on Saturday.
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