STEPHEN Hendry closed in on the #40,000 first prize at the Thailand Open in Bangkok after Dubliner Fergal O'Brien had let him off the hook with one expensive blunder in a high-quality quarter-final.
The Scot, attempting to win his fifth title of the season, scored a 5-3 victory over O'Brien and today tackles Nigel Bond, who defeated Australian giant-killer Quinten Hann 5-0, for a place in tomorrow's final.
World champion Hendry had amassed 302 points, and 46 minutes had elapsed before O'Brien potted his first ball of the contest.
Runs of 80 and 44 got Hendry off to a flying start and he smoothly moved 2-0 ahead with a 123 which could easily have been converted into a 141 total clearance - the highest break of the event - had he not failed to roll a tricky blue across the baulk cushion into a bottom pocket.
When the Scot subsequently slotted home a respotted black from distance to forge into a 3-0 lead, O'Brien looked to be in desperate trouble.
The initial ray of hope for the Republic of Ireland World Cup player came in frame four when Hendry missed a green when poised for 4-0 and O'Brien grabbed the lifeline by clearing to pink.
Following the mid-session interval O'Brien tied the scores at 3-3 and stood on the threshold of a totally unexpected 4-3 lead when he fired in a 55 break at the start of frame seven.
However, with the tournament favourite looking decidedly vulnerable to a shock result, O'Brien jawed a black off its spot and Hendry, as he has done so many times in similar situations during his career, fashioned a superb 68 clearance to steal it on the black.
Not surprisingly, that setback shattered O'Brien's stubborn resistance and Hendry duly crossed the finishing line with a 53 break to record his twenty-fifth win in the last 27 world ranking event matches he has contested.
Yesterday's other quarter-final had seen world No.5 Bond guarantee an appearance in the last four of a ranking tournament for only the second time this season by whitewashing teenager Hann in just 82 minutes.
Hann had caused two major upsets by beating John Higgins and Mark Williams in the previous two rounds, and should have been entitled to be confident. However, the Melbourne cueman was under pressure from the outset and Bond, who dropped both of his frames against Hann when England overcame Australia in the quarter-finals of the World Cup four months ago, said: ''Quinten made one mistake in each of the first four frames and that was enough.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article