Gibraltar Open 2021 snooker: 'Stephen Hendry won't want to look silly' – Shaun Murphy on King return
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
ByEurosport
Updated 02/03/2021 at 11:23 GMT
2005 world champion Shaun Murphy says Stephen Hendry will be giving maximum effort to avoid looking "silly" when he ends his nine-year absence from the World Snooker Tour on Tuesday night. The seven-times world champion takes a step into the unknown on his comeback against friend Matthew Selt in the GIbraltar Open first round. Watch the Gibraltar Open live on eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app.
'We can’t keep going on like this' - Murphy bickers with referee
Stephen Hendry will be keen not to embarrass himself on his return to the World Snooker Tour after a nine-year absence, according to 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy.
The seven-times world champion plays his first match on the main World Snooker Tour since retiring in 2012 when he faces close friend Matthew Selt in the first round of the Gibraltar Open on Tuesday night (LIVE at 7pm on Eurosport).
Hendry quit after losing 13-2 to fellow Scot Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals of the World Championship nine years ago, a match he revealed he "basically gave up about a third of the way through".
World number seven Murphy feels he won't want a repeat performance on his return to the sport he dominated in the 1990s.
"I'm really, really looking forward to it. The return of the king. I know them both very well," said Murphy, who completed a 4-2 win from 2-0 behind against Ashley Hugill in the first round with a sparkling 140, the highest break of the tournament so far.
"I think there has been good friendly banter between them.
"They would be a lot more mean-spirited on the golf course, I can assure you, where the banter is severe.
But make no mistake, they'll both want to win. I know this is a big match and a big marquee return for Stephen Hendry, but he won't want to walk out there and be made to look silly.
"I think he'll be trying his very best, I know Matt is going to give it everything he's got.
"And rightly so, it's the main focus of the first round of this tournament."
GIBRALTAR OPEN RESULTS
Monday
- Jamie Clarke 4-0 Yan Bingtao
- Alexander Uursenbacher 4-1 Yuan Sijun
- Zhou Yuelong 4-0 Xu Si
- Xiao Guodong 4-2 Martin O'Donnell
- Liang Wenbo 4-1 Brian Ochoiski
- David Gilbert 4-1 Paul Davison
- Jimmy Robertson 4-2 James Cahill
- David Lilley 4-2 Duane Jones
- Si Jiahui 4-2 Ding Junhui
- Mitchell Mann 4-0 Lukas Kleckers
- Robert Milkins 4-3 Gary Wilson
- Ricky Walden 4-3 Mark Joyce
- Rory McLeod 1-4 Hossein Vafaei
- Joe Perry 4-2 Mark Davis
- Shaun Murphy 4-2 Ashley Hugill
- Andy Hicks 1-4 Allan Taylor
- Judd Trump 4-1 Robbie Williams
- Oliver Brown 1-4 Fan Zhengyi
- Michael White 2-4 Sohail Vahedi
- Zak Surety 2-4 Tom Ford
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement