Stephen Hendry admits that he would 'hate it' if Ronnie O'Sullivan wins record eighth Crucible world title

In a light-hearted interview with fellow snooker legend Steve Davis on his award-winning Cuetips YouTube channel, Hendry revealed that he would ‘hate it’ if he saw O’Sullivan eclipse him and outright break his record for the most World Championship title wins in the modern era of the sport.

Both Davis and Hendry have worked closely together for many years as commentators and pundits for the BBC on snooker’s Triple Crown events, although back in their playing days they were fierce rivals.

Davis was the undisputed snooker king of the 1980s, helping take the sport to new levels of professionalism, exposure, and respect from the wider sporting and cultural media.

‘The Nugget’ won all six of his world titles during the decade, and reached a two further finals; for seven consecutive years he appeared in snooker’s showpiece fixture.

But come the turn of the decade, it was Hendry who became the sport’s undisputed number one player. In 1990, he defeated Jimmy White in the Crucible final to become snooker’s youngest-ever world professional champion at the age of 21 years and 106 days.

Having succumbed to the ‘Crucible Curse’ in 1991 - like Davis did in 1982 - Hendry won five consecutive world titles between 1992 to 1996. This put Hendry level with Davis on six world titles, and 1970s supremo Ray Reardon - the modern era’s other most decorated World Champion (although five of Reardon’s world crowns weren’t won at the Crucible).

On a winning streak of 29 matches at the Crucible, Hendry was one more victory away from a record-breaking seventh world title in the modern era, but Ken Doherty ended the sequence and got the better of him in the 1997 final.

Two years later, though, Hendry did win an unprecedented seventh Crucible accolade when he defeated Mark Williams 18-11 in the final.

Another world final appearance arrived in 2002 for Hendry, but his tilt for a record-extending eighth win was stopped by Peter Ebdon who secured his maiden world title in a dramatic deciding frame - the last Crucible final to go the distance.

During the latest Cuetips episode where they played a few frames at the Winter Gardens opposite the Crucible, Davis slap happily admitted to Hendry "When you won the seventh World Championship, obviously I wasn't watching. No way was I going to see you enjoying yourself?"

Despite having claimed both the UK Championship and Masters titles as a teenager, O’Sullivan had to wait until he was 25 to win his maiden world title in 2001.

Further crowns arrived in 2004 and 2008, before he joined an elite club of players to have successfully defended the sport’s blue riband event with back-to-back triumphs in 2012 and 2013.

That put ‘The Rocket’ onto five world titles, but after losing to Mark Selby in the 2014 final, O’Sullivan didn’t equal Davis and Reardon’s haul until 2020.

Following victory over Judd Trump in the 2022 final - which made him snooker’s oldest-ever world champion - O’Sullivan matched Hendry’s tally of seven.

Quarter-final defeats in 2023 and 2024 put an end to the Englishman’s hopes of a ‘great eight’, but at the time of writing, he is back in the last eight at the Crucible, and on course to create history.

Davis ribbed Hendry during their recent get-together asking him what it would be like if he was to be commentating on O’Sullivan being successful in another world final: “How are you going to feel as he’s potting the winning balls? How is it going to feel?

“I mean, are you going to be able to get any type of joy from it? What’s going to be going through your sad mind? Will you put a smile on your face?”

Laughingly, Hendry replied: “When I won, you weren’t bothered, were you, when I won seven?” to which Davis responded “Yeah, of course. I hated it.”

Hendry confirmed his answer about his feelings on O’Sullivan potentially breaking his Crucible record: “Yeah. Well, I'm the same. Of course I hate it!”

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