Snooker legend Stephen Hendry refuses to label exciting youngster as a future world champion

Seven-times ‘Crucible King’ Hendry has been performing commentary and punditry duties for the BBC during its ongoing live coverage of the 2026 World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.

Working on the live show on Sunday night, Hendry was in the studio covering the last 16 match-ups of John Higgins v Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Selby v Wu Yize.

Chinese ace Wu is making his debut this year as a Crucible seed. The 22-year-old broke into the world’s elite top 16 rankings for the first time earlier this season after claiming his maiden ranking event title at the 2025 International Championship on home soil in Nanjing.

Several weeks later, Wu made his Masters bow at the Alexandra Palace in London and was within a few pots of the final before being denied by eventual champion Kyren Wilson.

Fast forward a few months to the World Championship, and Wu - on his third Crucible outing - claimed his first win on the sport’s grandest stage with a crushing 10-2 opening round victory over compatriot Lei Peifan.

Wu is currently involved in his last 16 match against Mark Selby, and leads the four-time world champion 9-7 heading into their concluding session on Monday afternoon.

During the second session - which Wu won 5-3 after the opening act was shared - Hendry was asked by BBC presenter Seema Jaswal what he thought of the world number 10 to which the Scot replied: “Without a doubt he’s a star of the future. I think he is a future top four player.”

But when Hendry was asked whether Wu will be a world champion, the youngest-ever winner of the Crucible crown was cautious, saying: “That’s difficult to say. I mean I’m looking at players that have only won it once - Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump.

“Just to win it once is hard enough so it's impossible to say, but definitely he's a top four player.”

Six-time world champion Steve Davis was working alongside Hendry in the BBC studio, and ‘The Nugget’ praised Wu’s tactical game: “he’s got a very clever brain on him as well as a tactician, which is not necessarily always the case with the younger players, they learn that later in their career but he’s already got that in place.

“That'll probably stand him in good stead to win a lot of matches - bread and butter matches throughout the season where you sometimes can get through on tactics.”

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 World Snooker Championship, visit our tournament information centre here.