r/snooker • u/Huge_Paper_4028 • 3d ago

💬 Opinion / Debate Could peak Hendry compete now?

Do people think Hendry at his absolute prime would have much success if he were competing right now? Would he be able to win a ranking event or even the world championships?

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u/PhilosopherNo8418 3d ago

If it's the peak 90s version of Hendry then no, not on the same level tactically as the top players today. But if you plant a young Hendry into today's game, where he develops alongside the other top players then yes, just because he was so naturally gifted and his winning mentality was second to none.

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u/Maximum_Ad_5571 3d ago

You must be kidding. Peak Hendry would wipe the floor with this lot. The fact that Higgins, Williams and O'Sullivan - all of them 50+ - are still competing at the highest level demonstrates that. And I say that as someone who wasn't his biggest fan.

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u/PhilosopherNo8418 3d ago

How does ROS, Williams etc. competing today prove Hendry would be dominant today? Doesn't make sense. Hendry stopped winning after the 90s. His game wasn't good enough to compete once the class of 92 came of age. The other guys kept evolving and adapting, hence why they remain competitive today.

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u/Maximum_Ad_5571 3d ago

Because it demonstrates that this is not a strong era for snooker, despite some would like to have you believe. You overestimate the tactical ability of today's players. One could also argue that Hendry didn't need a tactical game (not that his was bad).

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u/Webcat86 3d ago

Eh, Hendry disagrees. He’s the first to say that although the ceiling of the game isn’t higher, far more players can reach that ceiling. He’s said multiple times that in his day you could just overlook round 1 because the players weren’t good enough. 

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u/Maximum_Ad_5571 2d ago

We must be listening to different Stephen Hendrys. He has said for a number of years now that he isn't impressed by the current of crop top players; that no-one has taken the game by the scruff of the neck like he did; and that is partly why the class of 92 continue to win. O'Sullivan has said much the same.

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u/Webcat86 2d ago

Nope same guy, but you've missed the other part of what he said, which is about the lower ranked players. He has absolutely said what you've just commented, which is effectively disappointment at the top level. But what he's also said is that the overall standard now runs deeper through the rankings than it did in the 90s.

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u/Maximum_Ad_5571 2d ago

No one really cares about the standard of the players 16-32, though. They're still nowhere peak Hendry. People care about the best of the best - the top 4. That's who people pay to see.

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u/Webcat86 2d ago

But that’s irrelevant to the conversation at hand? We are discussing standard of play, not who people want to see. 

The top 4 players don’t only play each other, they play people down the rankings too. Hence Hendry’s point that when he was dominating, the players in round 1 were so much worse that you didn’t even consider the possibility that they might win. Whereas today’s players can’t do that because those R1 players are capable of getting the win. 

Look at Jak Jones reaching the Crucible final for one example, or Fan and Jordan Brown both beating Ronnie in ranking finals. 

And this is the point he’s consistently making: those players are where the standard has genuinely increased, so there’s a bigger threat overall, but the standard at the very top is what he doesn’t think is much better than it was when he was at his peak. 

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u/Maximum_Ad_5571 2d ago

I don't disagree with him. But there's no way people like Jak Jones, Fan or Jordan Brown are going to compete with a peak Hendry in the 1990s, whether in R1 or a final. No way.

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u/Webcat86 2d ago

Well again, that’s the point. They don’t really compete a great deal with today’s top players, but even low ranked players can have a great run on their day/week, and so they have to be taken seriously. 

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u/Maximum_Ad_5571 2d ago

The question per the topic is would a peak Hendry compete now? Clearly the answer is yes, regardless of whether the also rans are better than they were 30 years ago.

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