Hendry facing Crucible exit (From Oxford Mail)

Hendry facing Crucible exit

1:18pm Tuesday 1st May 2012 in National Sport © Press Association 2013

Stephen Hendry looked to be heading out of the Betfred.com World Championship after a dismal performance against fellow Scot Stephen Maguire.

The seven-time champion fell 7-1 behind in their quarter-final and the prospect of a defeat with a session to spare was looming.

He missed the pink so badly in the third frame it was cringeworthy and underlined his struggle. The crowd groaned, Hendry wore an embarrassed face, and Maguire potted pink and black to move 3-0 ahead.

With eight frames to be played on Tuesday night, and 13 the target for victory and a place in the semi-finals, Hendry knew he would need to win three to avoid complete humiliation.

After resounding wins over Stuart Bingham and last year's champion John Higgins, there was growing support for Hendry to land an eighth Crucible title, 13 years after his seventh.

But aside from a break of 65 which gave him the seventh frame, the 43-year-old struggled badly throughout the session.

The statistics bore out the one-sided nature of the contest, with Hendry outscored 587-159. Maguire had a pot success rate of 93%, Hendry was on a dismal 80%.