Stephen Hendry has admitted he was left disappointed by Ronnie O'Sullivan before an infamous grudge match between the snooker icons. The pair, who remain locked on seven world titles each, get on famously nowadays, with plenty of mutual respect. But that wasn't the case in 2002, when a bitter feud erupted before the World Championship semi-final.
O'Sullivan, the defending champion, gave an explosive interview in which he confessed his disdain for the Scot and said he led a 'sad little life.' Those stinging words only served to fire up Hendry, whose dominance of the sport had ended.
Hendry recalls discovering O'Sullivan's comments
Speaking on his Cue Tips YouTube channel, Hendry said: 'Probably the only grudge match I've ever had in my career was against Ronnie O’Sullivan, 2002 semi-final at the World Championship. I was in my room the morning of the match. The guy who used to drive me around came in and said, "Have you seen the papers?" I said, "No, I've not seen the papers." He showed me the paper and Ronnie had said all this stuff.'
Hendry added: 'He was quite close to Naseem Hamed, the boxer, and I don't know whether that crowd stoked it up. Basically, he said that he never liked me and the only reason he spoke to me was because he thought he had to speak to me because we were at the same places. And he was going to send me back to Scotland to my sad little life. So my motivation was done there and then. I thought, "OK, if he doesn’t like me I won't speak to him, I'll just go out and play, I'll just go out and play the match."'
O'Sullivan's original comments
O'Sullivan had said: 'The most satisfying thing for me would be to send him home to Scotland as quickly as possible for a nice summer off. I'll say hello to him because it’s hard to ignore someone, but he's not my cup of tea. I know if I do get beat and he comes up and does a moonie in front of me and goes, "Nah nah nah," I'll just look at him and say, "Well done, go back to your sad little life."'
Disappointment and motivation
While the words fired up Hendry, they also disappointed him. He added: 'I think it was probably the last time I played my best snooker at the Crucible, that semi-final. I went on to lose the final to [Peter] Ebdon, but didn’t play the way I did in the semis against Ronnie. It was quite disappointing, actually, when it all happened because I liked Ronnie.'
'Many months later, he said he was encouraged to say all these things by these guys. Obviously, we get on great now, but I was disappointed. I just used it to psych myself up to win. It's probably the only match in my career that had any sort of bad feeling.'
O'Sullivan's antics during the match
On O'Sullivan's antics during the match, which Hendry won 17-13, Hendry said: 'I remember during the match, if I missed any easy shot, I could see Ronnie coming to the table laughing, smirking that I'd missed these easy shots. That got to me even more. I was just getting more and more mad, and more and more determined to win the match.'
