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Figure after player's nation denotes 2001-02 World Snooker Ranking
REPORT
The seven times Embassy World Champion, who had not won a ranking event since the 1999-2000 season British Open, sent out a huge message to all his rivals and critics that he is back in form by destroying surprise finalist Joe Perry 9-2 with a superb performance to win his 33rd career ranking title. It is the Scotsman's third success on this small island nation, as he won the Rothmams Malta Grand Prix in 1998 and also earlier this year when he defeated world number one Mark J. Williams in the final, bringing his total career tournament victories to 72 — just one short now of the record of 73 set by Steve Davis OBE. "It felt like the old days out there," Hendry said. "It's nice to feel at home again in a major final and produce that sort of form." The 32-year-old produced some sparkling snooker to defeat the world number 27 from Cambridgeshire in England. In the first session he fired in two wonderful century breaks to take his professional career tally to 543, and also added breaks of 88, 73, 53 and 50 to confirm is excellent long awaited return to form. Perry also had a century break of his own in the second frame which countered Hendry's in the previous frame, and was containing Hendry at 3-2 down until his break-building prowess took him up several more levels. Perry had a chance to steal the final frame of the first session from 51-0 points behind, but he missed a routine black into the top-left hand pocket to leave himself with a lot to do in the second session at 6-2 behind. On the resumption Perry, who had defeated four top-16 ranked players to reach the first final of his ten-year professional career, missed a black trailing by ten points in the ninth frame and Hendry's contribution of 37 was enough to put him into a very commanding 7-2 lead. The black ball again came to haunt Perry in the next frame, as he again missed a straightforward one when in good position and Hendry stepped in with a break of 82 to take an 8-2 advantage. It wasn't long before Hendry wrapped up victory by taking the eleventh frame to pocket the first prize of around $63,000, but that is not important to a player who has amassed over $11million in career prize money alone. "I'm starting to feel like the old Stephen Hendry again," he said. "The only real confidence you can gain is from winning. "It felt like the old days out there today. It was nice to feel at home at a snooker table in a major final and to produce that sort of form. I scored heavily all day. "When Joe made a century in the second frame I knew I was up against someone who was going to punish my mistakes so it was important for me to keep the pressure on him." Hendry has been determined to prove that he is still a winner after slipping to number 6 in the provisional ranking list compiled after the previous ranking event, after being number one for eight successive seasons. After beating Ireland's Ken Doherty 6-4 in the semifinals, he had declared: "It's nice to be back in a situation where I can compete at the highest level and feel as though I can win tournaments again. For a while, I didn't believe I was capable of doing that." Hendry paid tribute to the 1979 Embassy World Champion, Welshman Terry Griffiths, who is the Director of Coaching of his management company 110 Sport, for the part he has played in his revival of his form. "It's all down to Terry," said Hendry. "He is responsible for the way I've played in the last two tournaments — not just playing snooker but talking about it has helped so much." "Without going into detail he has fixed the technical faults that I've had and he's also fixed my head. The technical problems caused my head to go in the first place because my snooker wasn't up to scratch. "Terry thought I had become almost too relaxed around the venue and in the middle of matches. It's all about getting your mind focused on what you are here to do. "I'm not saying I'm going to win every tournament I play in because that's not going to happen but I now believe I am capable of winning every tournament I enter and that's all I can ask. "Now I have finally managed to win another tournament I feel I can go on from here. Winning an eighth World Championship at the end of the season is my main aim."
"He started really well. He put me under the cosh from the off and he never eased up all day. Towards the end he got to me. Every time I missed I knew I was going to lose the frame and it's tough to play like that. Perhaps if he had missed a few balls early on I could have relaxed a bit more. "It's all good experience for me. I'm going to take the positives out of this tournament. To win a tournament would have been lovely but my main aim at the start of the season was to get into the top-16. I have made inroads into doing that. Now I have got to keep it up for the rest of the season."
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Stephen Hendry MBE is the 2001 European Open champion
Joe Perry was completely outplayed by Hendry on his first final appearance