Watch: Xu Si ends Stephen Hendry’s World Championship dream

World number 82 Xu Si produced an impressive display to end seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry’s bid for a Crucible return at Betfred World Championship qualifying.

This week’s event is just 52-year-old Hendry’s second tournament back since returning to the professional circuit after nine years away from the sport.

The 36-time ranking event winner had stepped away from professional snooker after the 2012 World Championship, but was offered a two-year invitational tour card at the start of this season and elected to take it up.

Hendry secured the first match win of his return against old rival Jimmy White in the opening round on Monday, scoring a 6-3 victory in the highly anticipated encounter. However, he ran into a ruthless opponent in Xu today.

The Chinese 23-year-old pounced on any of Hendry’s mistakes this evening. After trailing 1-0, he critically produced a clearance of 35 to steal the second frame on the black and immediately restore parity.

From there Xu fired in breaks of 75, 79, 51, 66 and 72 to make it six frames on the bounce and book a third round clash with compatriot Zhou Yuelong. Wednesday evening’s victory acts as a boost to Xu’s tour survival hopes.

After the match Hendry was typically honest in assessing his performance. However, he vowed to play on and enter more events next season.

Hendry said: “I had two or three chances to go 2-0 up and from then on I didn’t offer any resistance to my opponent. He capitalised on all of my mistakes. It doesn’t matter how low a player is ranked, if you make it easy for them, they will still pot balls and win the frames.

“Hopefully with a few more competitive matches under my belt, before we come to this point next year, I’ll be able to have a bit more composure out there. Every shot seemed like a test. I was wondering if I was going to pot certain shots, that isn’t the way to think out there. You have to get on with it.

“I’ll certainly play in more events next year. If I am still not able to bring my cue action into a match situation then there is no point. The whole point is to see if I can play my natural game out there. We will give it a go next year and see what happens.”